30th January: Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

The last Monday in January is Bubble wrap appreciation day. Here are 10 facts about bubble wrap:

1. Its inventors, Marc Chavannes and Alfred Fielding, got the idea from two shower curtains sealed together. They called their invention Air Cap.
2. It was originally marketed as 3D wallpaper. When that didn't catch on, they attempted to sell it as greenhouse insulation. It was only when IBM realised this material would protect their shipments of Data Processing Systems in 1960 that bubble wrap became popular.
3. It is usually made from LDPE or polyethylene film, and has a flat side bonded with a shaped side to create the bubbles. The bubbles range in size from 6mm to 26mm, but are most commonly a centimetre in diameter.
4. Bubble Wrap is a generic trademark, owned by the Sealed Air Corporation.
5. Enough bubble wrap is made every year to go around the Earth ten times.
6. According to a survey commissioned by the makers of bubble wrap in 2012, popping bubble wrap for a minute provides as much stress relief as a 33 minute massage.
7. The current world record for popping bubble wrap simultaneously is 942 people.
8. In 1997, the Italian Torninova Corporation created a type of bubble wrap with heart-shaped bubbles.
9. There are any number of electronic games, apps and virtual internet games based on popping bubble wrap, if you can't find any and need to release some stress!
10. Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day came about when a radio station in Bloomington, Indiana, took delivery of a batch of new microphones wrapped in bubble wrap. As the microphones were unpacked, the sound of bubble wrap popping was unintentionally broadcast, and the rest is history.

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