Key Takeaway
The first commercial cardboard box appeared in England in 1817, while modern corrugated cardboard developed later through an 1856 English patent for pleated paper and Albert Jones's 1871 US patent for single-faced corrugated board used to protect fragile goods. Oliver Long added linerboard to both sides in 1874, creating a form closer to today's corrugated board. In 1879, Robert Gair developed an efficient method to cut and crease folding cartons in one operation. Cardboard history is therefore a sequence of paperboard, fluting, liners, and mass-production improvements, not one invention by a single person on a single date.
