Bubble wrap was originally invented to be textured wallpaper
In 1957, engineer Al Fielding and inventor Marc Chavannes attempted to launch an ultra-modern interior design trend: 3D textured wallpaper. They sealed two shower curtains together, trapping millions of tiny air bubbles between them. The bubbly wallpaper was a commercial disaster. After failing to sell it as greenhouse insulation, the inventors struck gold in 1960 when IBM began using it to safely cushion fragile mainframe computers.
An Accidental Modern Design Experiment
In 1957, in Hawthorne, New Jersey, American engineer Alfred Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes were working together to capitalize on the booming post-war market for modern home materials. Synthetic polymers and plastics were transforming domestic life, offering easy-to-clean surfaces and futuristic textures. Fielding and Chavannes set out to create a three-dimensional, textured wallpaper that would appeal to contemporary design sensibilities. Their concept was an affordable, wipeable wall covering with a raised tactile surface.
To build a working prototype, the two inventors used a heat sealer to bond two plastic shower curtains together. Their machinery was somewhat crude, and the sealing process inadvertently trapped a pattern of regular, hermetically sealed air bubbles between the laminated plastic sheets. When the finished material emerged, it did not look like the sleek, sophisticated wallpaper they had envisioned. Instead, it was an odd sheet of transparent, bumpy plastic filled with hundreds of tiny pressurized air pockets.
Searching for a Purpose: From Walls to Greenhouses
Despite the prototype's departure from traditional aesthetics, Fielding and Chavannes initially believed their bubbly material could still succeed as interior decor. However, consumers showed virtually no interest in hanging sheets of pocketed plastic across their living rooms or bedrooms. The aesthetic was deemed bizarre rather than avant-garde, and the product failed completely in the home decor market.
Unwilling to abandon the patentable material, the inventors began searching for alternative uses based on its physical properties. They recognized that trapped, stagnant air is an effective thermal insulator. Fielding and Chavannes attempted to market the bubbly sheets to commercial growers and homeowners as greenhouse insulation. While the material did provide some thermal retention when draped over greenhouse glass, the venture failed to gain meaningful commercial traction, leaving the inventors with an intriguing material in search of an actual problem to solve.