Bubble Wrap Was Born as Wallpaper

In 1957, in New Jersey, engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two plastic shower curtains together, leaving air trapped in between. That sheet full of bubbles struck them as the future of decoration: they launched it as textured wallpaper for modern living rooms. It flopped completely.

They tried again as greenhouse insulation. Second flop.

The third life came in 1959, when IBM unveiled a computer that had to be shipped halfway around the world without arriving in pieces. Until then, fragile things travelled in sawdust and crumpled newspaper; someone at Fielding and Chavannes's company — Sealed Air, which still exists — figured their failed wallpaper would hug machines better. It worked so well that it changed forever how delicate things are sent.

There's a certain poetic justice in the ending: the invention nobody wanted on their walls ended up getting into every home anyway. And popping it, once its flaw, is now half the planet's favourite part.