The History of Egg Carton Boxes

It is highly common to see a lot of egg cartons and boxes used by different stores to carry a variety of types of eggs. But did you know that an object as simple as an egg carton as a lot of history behind it? Egg carton as the name suggests is basically a box that is designed with different grooves to place eggs. Note that these are not the egg trays which are typically used by the farmers. The design need The designing of the egg carton box is a typical example of how a problem needed a design to be solved. Before the invention of the egg box, they were transported together just like any other object, stuffed in a cover and on the back of animals or historical automobiles. And unlike the modern era, the roads were uneven at its best, so the eggs could not stand a chance to survive. There is a legend that goes that a Canadian restaurant owner was increasingly being frustrated by the broken eggs that arrived at his hotel. The egg – carton was invented by the publisher of a local paper, and he was apparently challenged by the hotel owner. Somewhere between the design of the egg basked and the egg carton as we know of today, the Raylite box for eggs was invented in Liverpool. The box had a handle for easier carrying of the eggs and also separate compartments to place each egg. That was the first step in the evolution of the egg box to the egg carton box as we know of today. The egg carton of the newspaper publisher was also similar in the way of providing separate compartments. He further created cushioning in the compartments to protect the fragile eggs as well. Progress of Materials From then on the carton had almost the same design except for the expansion of the compartments to hold more eggs. The materials which were used as boxes also underwent changes depending on the need of the consumers. They were chosen according to the sturdiness required and the environmental impact as well. The spacing between the compartments was provided to give each one of them a shock absorbing ability to any impacts on them. Coyle, as the newspaper publisher is known, did not have any knowledge about designing specifically. He was just provided a problem for which he found a solution. Until the year of 1919, these egg cartons were made by hand, typically of wood and sometimes of scrap materials. From there, it was designed by machines and the mass production of the cartons started with different capacities. In the 1950’s, H.G. Bennett re-invented the egg carton design to make it hold more eggs, give it a more fancy outlook and provide greater sturdiness fit enough to be used for transportation across different mediums. Make sure to thank the inventors and pioneers involved in the designing of the egg carton box, the next time you pick one at the grocery store.