Now, not to get all Gladwell on you, but there are two things I've been thinking about lately: Cardboard and Nipples. Wait, come back. Hear me out. I'm not a pervert, this is not an attempt to unleash depravities upon an unsuspecting reader.
By cardboard, of course I refer to packaging boxes in general. In my mind, it almost seems as if the portability and uniformity of stacking and storage potential have coincided not only with the effectiveness of the Industrial Revolution, but the furtherance of it.
From Wikipedia
"The first commercial paperboard (not corrugated) box was produced in England in 1817.[9]"
"[The]Folding carton first emerged around the 1860’s and was shipped flat to save space, ready to be set up by customers when they were required."
"Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, and used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated boxboard was not patented and used as a shipping material until December 20, 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York City for single-sided (single-face) corrugated board.[11] Jones used the corrugated board for wrapping bottles and glass lantern chimneys. The first machine for producing large quantities of corrugated board was built in 1874 by G. Smyth, and in the same year Oliver Long improved upon Jones's design by inventing corrugated board with liner sheets on both sides.[12] This was corrugated cardboard as we know it today."
"The Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the pre-cut cardboard or paperboard box in 1890 – flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair's invention came about as a result of an accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing in one operation he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available around the turn of the twentieth century.[10]"
"By the early 1900s, wooden crates and boxes were being replaced by corrugated paper shipping cartons."
Now let's take note. The Industrial Revolution (again, from Wikipedia) "...was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries." What I'm suggesting is that although the Industral Revolution ended somewhere during the mid-1800's, that the Cardboard Revolution was just begining.
A completely unscientific and relatively meaningless (although interesting) Google timeline of the cardboard box: http://tinyurl.com/y9kgrk3But boxes haven't stopped evolving and simplifying our lives.
"The corrugated box was initially used for packaging glass and pottery containers, which are easily broken in transit. Later, the case enabled fruit and produce to be brought from the farm to the retailer without bruising, improving the return to the producers and opening up export markets."
Nowadays anything and everything either comes in a cardboard box, or is at least shipped in one. And now, plastic, which seemed sure to be a phenomenon to supplant the use of cardboard as a packaging, is now being bonded with cardboard and paper product to form the next generation of printable, durable, but biodegradable and recyclable shipping and end-user box products. Think about the American culture of the mid-20th century. Where would it have been without the cardboard box?
"The advent of flaked cereals increased the use of cardboard boxes. The first to use cardboard boxes as cereal cartons was the Kellogg Company."And from there, it was history.
"But what's this about nipples, Justin? I've spent all this time reading about boxes, but what about the nipples?"
Calm down, calm, down. I'll tell you.
Rubber nipples... "What?! Rubber Nipples?"
Yes, rubber nipples ..."awww man" ... The Rubber Nipple Revolution is the next MiniRevolution I want to talk about. Of course, the bottle has been around since man first sculpted clay.
"Bottles with hard spouts go back to prehistory[10]. The first consisted of urns with two openings: one for pouring the liquid into the bottle and the other to be put in the baby's mouth. Soft teats of various materials were tried but were very difficult to clean. The invention of vulcanized rubber provided a material that was soft and could withstand the heat of sterilization. Elijah Pratt of New York patented the first rubber teat in 1845 [11]. It took until the 1900s before the technology was perfected for a practical soft teat such that the baby bottle could become a practical and safe alternative to breastfeeding."Now, not only do I suggest the Rubber Nipple Revolution began in the 1900's, but I believe the effects have only just begun. There is a common thread between all the 'Revolutions' I've mentioned: they all have massively increased humanities ability to spawn and thrive. Now call me a worrywort, but I believe that an overpopulation crisis looms in the future, and although I'm am not currently presenting ideas to prevent such a crises (maybe in a future post), I think that the Rubber Nipple Revolution is the biggest yet. Why? Because it is the safest way so far too feed a baby that is not an actual biological nipple. Technology and medicine are wonderful for keeping people alive, and for helping women concieve.
But the rubber nipple (and to a large degree formula: the Formula Revolution wouldnt have had the same edge, though), has and will continue to act as a huge aid inthe propogation of our species. It has eased feeding babies procedurally, and has allowed the propogation of healthy body weight, one of the most important factors in survival. If we can judge by the approximate lengths of other Revolutions, we are only about half way through it. We can notice it in the population booms that have occured in America begining with the Baby Boomers. Imagine this repeated for a few generations, worldwide. See, what I mean?
Many agree that there is a overpopulation crises on the horizon. What will be the next Revolution, the one that not only helps ourspecies procreate and survive, but saves us from ourselves?
To put it in more ridiculous terms,
" How will we survive the Rubber Nipple Revolution?"
