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CardboardCardboard is a lay term used to describe a variety of heavy wood-based types of paper, notable for their stiffness and durability. Paperboard packaging used for food and small consumer goods, as well as corrugated packaging used for larger goods and shipping cartons are the most common examples of items referred to as Cardboard. Paperboard (cardboard) was first invented in China some time in the 15th century, and is used for a wide variety of purposes. One of its more common uses is as a packaging material. The first commercial paperboard box was produced in England in 1817. In the mid 19th century, an ingenious concept enabled flimsy sheets of paper to be transformed into a rigid, stackable and cushioning form of packaging for delicate goods in transit. Corrugated (also called pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856, and used as a liner for tall hats, but corrugated boxboard would not be patented and used as a shipping material until December 20, 1871. The patent was issued to Albert Jones of New York, New York for single-sided (single-face) corrugated board. 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' design by inventing corrugated board with liner sheets on both sides. This was now corrugated board as we know it today. The American Robert Gair invented the corrugated box in 1890, consisting of pre-cut flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair's invention, as with so many other great innovations, came about as a result of an accident: he was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s, and while he was printing an order of seed bags a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut the bag. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing board in one operation he could make prefabricated cartons. Extending this to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available. By the start of the 20th century, corrugated boxes began replacing the custom-made wooden crates and boxes previously used for trade. The corrugated carton 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 hitherto unaffordable export markets. (There had previously been a great deal of waste when, for example, oranges were craned out of the hold of a ship, having been bulk loaded into it.) Will Keith Kellogg first used paperboard cartons to hold flaked corn cereal, and later when he began marketing it to the general public, a heat-sealed waxed bag of Waxtite was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box rather than outside. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Cardboard":
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