Invention of the Pre-Cut Cardboard Box
The invention of the pre-cut cardboard box came in 1879, when Brooklyn printer and paper bag maker Robert Gair found that cutting and creasing paperboard in a single press operation could mass-produce flat, foldable cartons.
What happened and why it matters
Gair's discovery made cheap boxes that ship and store flat, and folding cartons and their corrugated relatives are now the basic container of e-commerce. The idea came from an accident: a metal rule meant to crease seed bags shifted and cut them, and Gair saw that cutting and creasing in one step could turn out box blanks at high speed. Pre-cut blanks take little space until they are folded at the point of use. Packing stations and right-sized box programs work the same way, storing flat stock compactly and forming a carton only when an order is packed. Gair's boxes were paperboard cartons, not corrugated shipping boxes.
People
Related events
Sources
- Robert Gair en.wikipedia.org
- Folding carton en.wikipedia.org