Bubble Wrap: The Wallpaper That Learned to Protect

Bubble Wrap looks like a finished idea: a clear sheet, sealed air pockets, and a job protecting fragile things. It took two failed identities to find that job. This episode follows Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes from their 1957 attempt at textured wallpaper, through an ineffective greenhouse experiment, a 1959 patent for the manufacturing process, and the 1961 IBM packaging breakthrough.

The core patent, U.S. Patent 3,142,599, was filed on November 27, 1959, and granted on July 28, 1964. It lists Marc A. Chavannes as inventor and Sealed Air Corporation as assignee. Its method heats a plastic film, forms it over a molding roller, and fuses a second film over the raised pockets to create sealed cushioning cells. 1

Smithsonian Magazine documents the original wallpaper plan, the unsuccessful greenhouse use, the founding of Sealed Air in 1960, and the shift to protective packaging when IBM needed to move its delicate 1401 computers. 2 Sealed Air’s current account confirms the 1957 Hawthorne, New Jersey origin and the company’s continuing packaging focus. 3

IBM’s own history places the 1401 in the center of the era’s data-processing expansion: it was introduced in 1959, drew more than 5,200 orders in its first five weeks, and had more than 10,000 systems installed by the mid-1960s. 4

The present-day footprint is deliberately brief. Sealed Air says its business now serves customers in 117 countries and territories; its current Bubble Wrap packaging portfolio includes options with 90 percent recycled content. 3