Pretty Packages

The packaging industry grew as packages became an important new commodity in themselves. Closures were an early development, made specifically to adapt to powder, paste or liquid.  They were designed with dispensing caps, measuring caps, and in all shapes and sizes.

Lithography improvements reduced the costs of reproducing pictures on boxes and labels, and new ways to print on wood, glass, steel, tin and aluminum.  A Swiss chemist discovered cellophane in 1912.  It was first manufactured by the French before DuPont made it a commercial success in the United States in 1924.

Still another packaging invention was the aerosol, an Americanism made from "areo" + "solution."
Aerosol appeared in the late 1960s dictionary as a "push button package."  Even though it was available before World War II, they were originally heavy and costly, mainly mostly insect repellent.  It took a decade before the aerosol can was made safe, inexpensive and light-weight and that properly forced the product from the can.

By 1955, about 240 million were being produced for non-food purposes every year in the United States alone.  From paint cans to hair spray, by 1956 that number had risen to 320 million.  The use of aerosol was spreading and would leave an indelible mark on the earth's atmosphere. 

By the 1960s, packaging in the United States was valued at more that $20 billion a year.  It had become an American industry.

Next time...The Consumer Packaging Revolution
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Today in Pioneer History: "On March 2, 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such beloved children's books as "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham" is born in Springfield, Massachusetts.