Stevens remembers inventor on 'Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day'

HOBOKEN, N.J. - As America and the world celebrate "Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day" (Jan. 26th) Stevens Institute of Technology fondly remembers the man who co-invented Bubble Wrap in the late 1950s - an illustrious Stevens alumnus, the late Alfred W. Fielding. Today, Sealed Air Corporation, the Saddle Brook, N.J.-based company he co-founded in 1960, is a worldwide manufacturer of packaging materials with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion.

Fielding's story is one of those inspirational invention tales with a creative, unintended twist - a success story that even today Stevens Institute of Technology students can learn from as they look forward to their careers. The early history of Bubble Wrap just goes to show that, for inventors, keeping an open mind to possible applications is a clear advantage - ultimately, you may start out trying to invent one thing, only to hit on an even better idea. Many inventors, including Fielding, have.

The story begins in 1957 in a garage in Hawthorne, N.J., with two entrepreneurial engineers hard at work, Fielding and his partner, a Swiss inventor named Marc Chavannes. They are trying to invent a plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. It fails. But along the way they realize their invention could be used for packing material. And, to make a long story short, they give birth to what is now known around the world as Bubble Wrap, and Sealed Air Corporation, the company that has developed and marketed it.

Through its technology, Sealed Air Corporation essentially built a specialty chemical business in protective packaging. The kinds of chemical engineering processes employed to make Sealed Air's products a success are taught at Stevens today. What's more, the spirit behind the educational environment at Stevens, known as Technogenesis® (taking ideas from innovation to marketplace implementation), is the very same spirit that led Fielding to found Sealed Air Corporation.

According to one chemical engineering professor at Stevens, Dr. Robert Blanks, "Unintended invention is more common than you might think, and the invention of Bubble Wrap is a great example.

"Another good one is Roy Plunkett's invention of Teflon®, Dupont's blockbuster product," said Blanks, who directs chemical engineering at Stevens. "In 1938 Plunkett was a 27-year-old researcher, fresh out of graduate school, experimenting with refrigerants. He comes upon a nearly discarded sample that has turned into a solid. Rather than just throwing it out, he explores its unique properties.

"That's why today Stevens guides students to learn in ways that will lead them to marketplace applications that can be successful, and part of that learning includes cultivating curiosity and being on the lookout for the unexpected outcome," said Blanks. "The Plunketts and the Fieldings of tomorrow are likely to be young people coming out of universities like Stevens today."

A native of Hackensack, N.J., Fielding graduated from Stevens in 1939. He earned a master of science degree from Stevens in 1943. Stevens awarded him an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree in 1986. He is in the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame for his role in creating Bubble Wrap, and he was inducted into membership in The Newcomen Society of the United States in 1982. The Newcomen Society recognizes pioneers who have laid the foundations for major enterprises.

Fielding was also particularly generous to his alma mater, providing funds for a laboratory established during his lifetime, and, through his family's continued generosity, for the future establishment of an endowed chairmanship on the Stevens faculty. A conference room in the university's main administration building was named in his honor.

For more information on "Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day," browse sites online, including www.sealedair.com and www.fast-pack.com/bubblewrapappreciation.html . At such sites, you can even while away a few minutes loudly popping the bubbles on "virtual Bubble Wrap" - something the inventors could hardly have envisioned back in 1957.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research.  The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.

Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts.  Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world.  Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.