Bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper. In 1957, in New Jersey, engineer Al Fielding and inventor Marc Chavannes, sealed two shower curtains together so that air bubbles were captured, giving the wallpaper a textured appearance. But the product turned out to be unsuccessful. Three years later, Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air which made the product, came up with the perfect use for it – packaging material. Their first client was IBM which used bubble wrap to protect the IBM 1401 computer during shipment.
The alternate use they came up with was to use it as greenhouse insulation. While bubble wrap by itself does create somewhat of an insulating effect, this idea didn’t pan out popularly either.
It was three years after the initial creation of Bubble Wrap that Frederick W. Bowers, a marketer at Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap, finally came up with the perfect use for their product. On October the 5, 1959, IBM announced their new 1401 variable word length computer. Bowers got the idea that Bubble Wrap could be used as a good packaging material to protect the computer while it was being shipped. He then pitched the idea to IBM and demonstrated Bubble Wrap’s protective abilities. His demonstration went over well and IBM began purchasing Bubble Wrap to protect their 1401 and other fragile product they sold and shipped.
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