Five turning points in corrugated board history that still shape box specifications

Corrugated board started out in 1856 as a liner for top hats. By the early 20th century it had become three-layer board, cut and creased into flat boxes that were folded where they were needed, and it was replacing the wooden crate in general shipping. Each step on that path explains a specification buyers still discuss today: how many layers a box needs, how tall the flute should be, and why boxes arrive flat.

This article follows those five turning points for purchasing and packaging design staff, and for anyone curious about how the corrugated box came about. The table gives the short version, and the sections below explain what each step means for the boxes specified today.

Five turning points at a glance

1856: a hat liner that absorbed shocks

In 1856, two Englishmen named Healey and Allen were granted what is generally regarded as the first patent for corrugated paper. Packaging played no part in their plans. They wanted a liner for the tall top hats men wore at the time, made from a material that would hold the shape of the hat, let air through and stay light. Paper pressed into a fluted, wave-like form met all three needs.

Choosing a flute height today is a trade-off with its roots in that patent. A tall flute leaves bigger pockets between the layers and cushions the contents better, while a short flute gives a smoother surface for fine print. The cushioning comes from the air trapped in those pockets, which absorbs force well. Healey and Allen ignored that side effect at the time. For a comparison of the flute types, see Corrugated board structure: how E, B, C, BE and BC flutes differ.

1871: corrugated paper becomes packaging

Fifteen years after the first patent, Albert L. Jones of New York patented the use of corrugated paper to wrap fragile goods such as glass bottles and lamps. It was the first time the material was used as packaging.

Buyers still meet the board Jones used, as the inner wraps and liners inside a box. Single-face corrugated has one liner glued to one side of the flute, so it rolls up easily and wraps closely around an object. Each piece wraps one item. With no resistance to top load or crushing, single-face board cannot be stacked and cannot form the body of a box.

1874: a second liner creates three-layer board

Oliver Long is credited with the next step. In 1874 he added a second liner to the open side of the flute, producing three-layer board: liner, flute, liner. Each part has its own job. The two liners take tension and compression, and the flute between them holds them apart as a spacer.

This structure is what first made corrugated board usable for boxes. It remains the standard specification for most boxes today, and the principle has stayed the same since: liners bonded to a flute.

Spacing between the liners matters

For a box that needs more stacking strength, moving from C flute to BC flute (double wall) often does more than raising the paper grammage within the same structure. The reason goes back to the spacer. Vertical compression strength grows with the distance between the liners more than with the thickness or grammage of the paper. Crushed boxes and transit damage: finding the cause applies the same principle to crushed boxes and transit damage.

By 1890: cutting and creasing in a single stroke

Robert Gair owned a printing shop in Brooklyn and was printing paper seed bags when a metal rule in the press shifted and cut the paper where it should have creased it. Gair saw that cutting blades and creasing rules set at different heights in the same press could cut and crease a sheet in one stroke. By 1890 the method was in use. That was almost 20 years after Jones first wrapped bottles in corrugated paper, and it opened the way to boxes much like the ones used today.

Box blanks could now be made in long runs, shipped flat and folded at their destination. Corrugated boxes are still made this way. Slotted boxes get their slots from a machine and die-cut boxes are shaped with a cutting die, and both leave the line as flat sheets. Shipping them flat is what keeps the cost of moving empty boxes low. Corrugated box types: four groups and how to choose explains how each group of boxes is formed.

Gair first used the method on paperboard, the board used for folding cartons. It moved to corrugated board in the early 20th century, once corrugated board could be produced in the quality and quantities the process needed.

Paper replaces the wooden crate

Early in the 20th century, most goods still traveled in wooden crates. Around 1903, corrugated board gained acceptance as a shipping material, and from then on paper began to replace wood in general shipping. Corrugated boxes had four clear advantages, each with a commercial payoff:

• Weight: boxes are much lighter, which lowers freight cost across the whole supply chain.
• Production cost: crates had to be sawn and assembled one at a time, and boxes avoid that work.
• Storage: empty boxes fold flat and take far less warehouse space than empty crates.
• Print: the smoother surface carries a logo and product information, so the box also communicates.

Today, lightweight goods and pallet-stacked shipments travel in corrugated board, and wood is kept for extra-heavy-duty loads and reusable packaging that makes many trips. Corrugated paper pallets: how much they carry and when they can replace wood looks at the same comparison for pallets.

What has changed in the last 20 years

Recent changes have come in printing, design and sourcing:

• Barcodes and QR codes printed on boxes link each box to tracking systems.
• Perforated tear-off designs let a shipping box open straight into a shelf display.
• Traceability of the pulp source is now a purchasing requirement at large organizations, a question hardly anyone asked 20 years ago.

Over the same 20 years, single wall (3-layer) and double wall (5-layer) board have kept the same specifications.

Old principles behind current specifications

When you specify a box today, the number of layers and the choice of flute still rest on principles worked out about 150 years ago. The right combination for a particular job depends on the product, the way the boxes will actually be stacked and handled, and its weight. Custom corrugated boxes shows every box style Auto Boxes produces.

Frequently asked questions

When was corrugated paper invented?
The first patent was granted in England in 1856 to Healey and Allen, who used fluted paper as a hat liner. Its first use as packaging came in 1871, when Albert L. Jones in the United States patented it for wrapping fragile items such as glass bottles.

When was the first corrugated box made?
Corrugated boxes came together in stages between 1874 and the early 20th century. Oliver Long is credited with the three-layer board that made boxes possible in 1874. The cut-and-crease method for making foldable boxes, credited to Robert Gair, was in use by 1890, and it was applied to corrugated board in the early 20th century. Boxes are still produced with this method today.

Why are boxes delivered flat for the customer to fold?
Boxes are made as flat sheets from the start. Shipping them flat saves freight and storage space, because an erected box takes up several times the space of the same box folded flat.

Has corrugated board structure changed much since 1874?
The principle has stayed the same: liners bonded to a flute. What has improved is the quality of the pulp and paper, the precision of the machines, and the way paper grade and flute are chosen to suit each job. For a side-by-side comparison, see Corrugated paper grades: what they are and how to choose the right one.