The first of five clues. Each one below gives a little more away.
I was invented to be wallpaper, and absolutely nobody wanted me.
My second career was insulating greenhouses. That failed as well.
I only found my purpose when a computer company needed to post something fragile.
Popping me is a recognised way to lose an afternoon.
Sheets of plastic bubbles around a parcel.
Bubble Wrap
Two engineers sealed a pair of shower curtains together in 1957 trying to make textured wallpaper. It took three more years, and IBM shipping computers, before anyone saw what they had actually made.
Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two shower curtains together in 1957 hoping to sell textured wallpaper. Nobody wanted it. They tried again as greenhouse insulation, which also failed. The rescue came in 1960 from IBM, which needed to ship the new 1401 computer without destroying it, and suddenly a sheet full of trapped air made obvious sense. The company that resulted, Sealed Air, is now enormous. A version with connected channels that ships flat and inflates on site has since been introduced, to the loud objection of everyone who ever enjoyed the original.
Reading five clues at once is not the game. In the real thing they arrive one at a time and every wrong guess costs an hour. Play mystery #36 · today's mystery · the vault
Previous: mystery #35. Next: mystery #37. Or try #38, #39, #40, #41, #42, #43.