The corrugated box replaced the wooden crate and made parcel shipping cheap.

Before the 1850s anything that travelled had to be packed in a hand-built wooden crate. Each one cost a lot to make, was heavy to move, and often did not protect the goods inside, so breakage was common.

Corrugated board, a fluted paper core between two flat sheets, got its start in New York when Albert Jones patented it, first to ship bottles and lanterns in 1871. Its real strength came when Robert Gair added two flat boards on either side of the fluted middle in 1890.

Corrugated was light and cheap, and a box could be cut flat or folded up at the point of packing. That made it the benchmark for shipping containers and triggered a boom in shipping.

The flat, light, mass-produced box replaced the heavy crate and became the basis of modern parcel and mail-order commerce.

Ship the box flat, and let the air core carry the load.

Corrugated board is far cheaper and lighter than timber.

A flat, pre-cut box folds up at point of use, so it stores and ships compact.

Less weight and less breakage cut freight charges and damage claims.

Mass production lets a box maker supply any size at a standard cost.

Make the container the cheapest, lightest thing you can mass-produce, and shipping cost falls; the value is in the material and the fold, not in the crate.

Corrugated cartons became the world's standard shipping container, displacing wooden crates and enabling the mail-order and parcel business. The fluted-board design and flat-fold approach still underlie nearly every shipping box, and the rise of e-commerce has only increased its use.