Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Bairbre N’Cinneide asks If the oldest wheel in the world was a potter’s wheel. What other ubiquitous invention started out having a different use?

There are a great many inventions that were originally used for something else completely different. One of the most common things that will often change from their intended use is pharmaceutical products. Viagra was originally intended as a heart medication.

However, the best example I could come up with of something that had a totally different original use intent was……bubble wrap.

If you’ve experienced bubble warp, it is hard to even conceive of what else it might be used for other than a packaging material.

However, it was originally developed in 1957 by two inventors, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, who created the product to be a form of textured wallpaper.

The use of the product as wallpaper was an absolute flop. However, they managed to pivot and established the Sealed Air Company in 1960 to sell bubble wrap as a packing material, where it was a great success.