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Milk Experiment #17: That Anachronistic Feel

From: "Jay Holder" <jho...@d...>
To: <d...@milk.com>
Subject: Milk caton history
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 21:56:31 -0500

    My daughter is researching info on milk cartons for a school report. Do
you know any of the following? Who is the first company to come out with
the paper milk carton instead of glass? What country or state did they
first introduce the paper carton? What year did they introduce the paper
carton?
    If you can help us with this we would be very thankful.

                        Sincerely,   Jay and Jaclyn Holder


To: "Jay Holder" <jho...@d...>
Subject: Re: Milk caton history

>Who is the first company to come out with the paper milk carton instead of
>glass? What country or state did they first introduce the paper carton?
>What year did they introduce the paper carton?

Hi. Thank you for asking. I believe the question is actually answered
completely in the FAQ ...milk.com..., but to restate:

The first company to come out with the paper milk carton was the Toronto
East India Company, which developed it in 1824 due to a glass shortage,
which turned out to be temporary. They reverted to glass in 1827, but in
fact people complained because they had gotten used to the convenient
parallelpiped shape--it stacked more neatly in the ice box--and the kids
had already started regularly using the boxes for art projects (hats, bird
feeders, etc.). Also, dropping a paper box wasn't nearly as tragic as
dropping a glass bottle. It was only a matter of time before the whole
industry switched to paper, and now only botique creameries retain glass
for that anachronistic feel.

Hope this helps.

Dan Bornstein
Proprietor, milk.com