Surprising facts about bubble wrap
7min read
29/01/2020
Did you hear it pop on Monday?
It’s a sound everyone knows. The captivating sound when a small bubble bursts under your fingers and the air escapes explosively. Bubble wrap is probably the most popular packaging material and makes unpacking a highlight. Whether young or old, anyone who holds the foil in their hands can’t help but burst the bubbles with a satisfying “pop”. And with its popularity, bubble wrap has made it a curious day of honour: the Bubble Wrap Day of Honour takes place annually on the last Monday in January. Launched in 2001 by the American radio station “Spirit 95 Radio”, events have been organised year after year that revolve around bubble wrap: bubble wrap crush competitions, the creation of bubble wrap sculptures or even bubble wrap fashion shows provide entertainment and good humour. In the meantime, a real cult has developed around the protective film. But where does the fascination with bubble wrap come from?
1. bubble wrap calms
Besides the practical property of protecting packaged items, there are other reasons for the material’s popularity. The colloquial name bubble wrap has its origins in the playful appeal that the film exerts. The bursting of the bubbles has a calming effect.
The repeated execution of a movement, completely without meaning or purpose, increases attention. The repeated clicking of a biro, wiggling one’s leg, biting one’s fingernails, twiddling one’s thumbs or other behaviour patterns are often perceived as fidgeting, but they increase receptivity. This also includes bursting the cult foil.
By the way, “fidgeting” is the English term for fidgeting. The hand spinning tops called fidget spinners triggered a real hype a few years ago, but it has long since died down. So is bubble wrap the better Fidget Spinner?
2. bubble wrap flops before it pops
Sixty-three years ago, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes found a way to trap air bubbles between two plastic shower curtains to create a pattern of tiny bubbles. The end product was a textured wallpaper in the style of the avant-garde. In this respect, the bubble wrap flopped. The attempt to sell the creation as greenhouse insulation also failed.
However, the beginning of computerisation boosted business: IBM launched the 1401 data processing system and needed reliable protective packaging for shipping the highly sensitive transistors. Paper, the cushioning material commonly used until then, was not suitable for this purpose. Bubble wrap, on the other hand, proved to be the ideal packaging solution. The triumphant advance and the joy of plopping began.
3 Bubble wrap is art
The Canadian artist Bradley Hart needs 150 hours for one of his paintings. He uses bubble wrap to create photo-realistic pixel paintings. By injecting paint into the bubbles, he creates his works of art. At exhibitions, he exhibits both the front and the back of the paintings or even combines them.
But it’s not just with Bradley Hart’s paintings that bubble wrap is making it into museums. As a “Humble Masterpiece”, the cult film has also made it to MoMAQNS – The Museum of Modern Art, Queens. The exhibition was meant to inspire people to view everyday objects as masterpieces. For as a rule, the balance between form and function is not perceived as long as the utility is fulfilled. In addition to the bubble wrap, other objects such as the tea bag, Q-tips, bottle opener, lighter or the Post-it are on display.
4. bubble wrap seals off an air force base
An emergency call in Albuquerque in 2015 reporting gunshots caused a great deal of excitement. Kirtland Air Force Base and neighbouring public schools were then placed on lockdown. After 45 minutes, no evidence of gunshots was found and the lockdown was lifted. It turns out that the alleged gunshots were the sound of bubble wrap bursting: sandwich-sized air pockets were made to burst.
5. bubble wrap can save children’s lives
Lewis and Logan are healthy and bright three-year-old twins and they owe their lives to bubble wrap. Already during the 25th week of pregnancy, the two came into the world much too early. At such a birth, premature babies are not yet anatomically mature. Because of the lack of fat, the thin skin and the weak immune system, they are particularly vulnerable and cool down very quickly: In a 25 degree warm delivery room, the body temperature of a newborn drops by 4 degrees in just 5 minutes. To protect them from the cold on the way to the incubator and further medical care, doctors often use cling film. In the case of Lewis and Logan, however, the doctors opted for bubble wrap. Compared to cling film, bubble wrap has at least two layers and protects premature babies more effectively against air shocks. The bubble wrap insulated the twins from the cold and contributed to their survival and healthy development today.
6. bubble wrap is indispensable on film sets
Shooting days can be quite long for actors. A lot of time is lost due to light changes and different camera perspectives. An average Tatort episode requires around 25 shooting days, whereas the Lord of the Rings trilogy required 2,350 shooting days.
If you imagine the hobbits’ trek with all the luggage, it’s hard to imagine that the backpacks were heavily loaded for the entire time. If you see a film or a TV series whose plot takes place at school, it also suggests that the backpacks are not filled with heavy books, but quite possibly only with bubble wrap during long days of filming.
7. bubble wrap inspires young inventors
Sealed Air Corporation sponsored a bubble wrap competition for young inventors until 2010. The competition was designed to encourage primary school students to discover alternative uses for the iconic film. Winners received up to $10,000 in prize money.
Award-winning ideas included:
- 3D Puzzle of the Empire State Building
- Wallpaper that stimulates and engages autistic children due to bubbles and a calming blue background
- Adjustable wrist cushion to prevent and relieve the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in computer users
- A swing for children with movement disorders
- A device that saves energy and water when flushing toilets
- A low-cost alternative to Petri dishes
Life without popping bubble wrap is possible, but pointless
As the above eight examples show, bubble wrap is much more than padding and can be used in many different areas of life. However, the film is always associated here with the individual air pockets, the bubbles. There are many different types of bubble wrap. In order to save costs in storage and transport, the airless cushioning film was introduced. The film is only filled with air when needed. However, it is then not a matter of individual bubbles, but a single air chamber that is filled. The explosive popping is thus also lost. In the past, the Sealed Air Corporation invented a bubble wrap whose bubbles were virtually indestructible. But the customers didn’t like that at all.
So is popping indispensable for bubble wrap?
