The Chinese
invented cardboard in the 1600s. The English played off that
invention and created the first commercial cardboard box in
1817. Pleated paper, an early form of corrugated board,
initially served as lining for men’s hats. By the 1870s,
corrugated cardboard cushioned delicate glassware during
shipment. Stronger, lined corrugated cardboard soon
followed. American Robert Gair produced the first really
efficient cardboard box in 1879. His die-cut and scored box
could be stored flat and then easily folded for use.
Refinements followed, enabling cardboard cartons to
substitute for labor-intensive, space-consuming, and weighty
wooden boxes and crates. Today, cardboard boxes are widely
appreciated for being strong, light, inexpensive, and
recyclable.
Over the years, children sensed the possibilities inherent
in cardboard boxes, recycling them into innumerable
playthings. The strength, light weight, and easy
availability that make cardboard boxes successful with
industry have made them endlessly adaptable by children for
creative play. Shoe boxes serve as ideal settings for scenes
and dioramas. Small boxes take on alternate roles as
dollhouse furniture. Wheels drawn on the side turn a box
into a car. Really large boxes—from washers, stoves,
big-screen TVs, or refrigerators—can offer children even
greater opportunity for creativity. With nothing more than a
little imagination, those boxes can be transformed into
forts or houses, spaceships or submarines, castles or caves.
Inside a big cardboard box, a child is transported to a
world of his or her own, one where anything is possible.
