Mondo Knows Facts

Bubble wrap was originally invented to serve as textured wallpaper

Engineers tried selling air-bubble plastic sheets as 3D wallpaper before packing use

Engineers Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes created bubble wrap in 1957 by sealing two plastic shower curtains together with trapped air bubbles. They initially tried selling the product as washable textured wallpaper and greenhouse insulation. IBM later discovered its exceptional shock-absorbing value for shipping fragile computer equipment.

Bubble wrap play photograph
Miika Silfverberg (MiikaS) from Vantaa, Finland · CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence · source

Where this comes from

Smithsonian Institution

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Tags: packaging, inventions, plastics

Bubble wrap was originally invented to serve as textured wallpaper: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Engineers tried selling air-bubble plastic sheets as 3D wallpaper before packing use. The figure is taken from Smithsonian Institution, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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