Lunchbox

With increasing industrialization resulting in Americans working outside the home in factories, it became unfeasible to go home to lunch every day, thus it was necessary to have something to protect and transport a meal. Since the 19th century, American industrial workers have used sturdy containers to hold hardy lunches, consisting of foods such as hard-boiled eggs, vegetables, meat, coffee, and pie.[2] David Shayt, curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, states that "Some of our earliest examples, from the 19th century, were woven baskets with handles. A meal would be wrapped in a handkerchief. Depending on your station, a fancy wooden box would be used by the wealthy." Tinplate boxes and recycled biscuit tins commonly were used in the early 1800s, and fitted metal pails and boxes began to appear around the 1850s.[3] Patents started to appear for lunchbox inventions in the 1860s.

The first real lunch box decorated with a famous character dates back to 1935 and it was Mickey Mouse who had this honour. Very quickly, more than 450 decorated models invaded the stores. But it wasn't until much later, around 1950, that the market literally exploded: more than 120 million small metal boxes were sold between 1950 and 1970, often accompanied by a Thermos initially made of metal and glass, and later plastic.[4]

The Thermos, a vacuum flask adapted for lunch box use, was introduced in 1904.[5] The Thermos, which enabled hot or cold beverages to remain at optimal temperature until lunchtime, became a common component of the lunch box.

Lunch boxes have been manufactured using various materials. Typically, children's school lunch boxes are made of plastic or vinyl, while adult workers' lunch boxes are commonly made of metal, such as tin or aluminium, due to the greater need for durability. The aluminium variant was invented in 1954 by Leo May, a miner in Sudbury, Ontario, after he accidentally crushed his tin lunch box.[6]

In 1935, Geuder, Paeschke and Frey produced the first licensed character lunch box, Mickey Mouse. It was a lithographed oval tin, with a pull-out tray inside. It had no vacuum bottle, but did have a handle.

In 1950, Aladdin Industries created the first children's lunch box based on a television show, Hopalong Cassidy. The Hopalong Cassidy lunch kit, or "Hoppy", quickly became Aladdin’s cash cow. Debuting in time for back-to-school 1950, it would go on to sell 600,000 units in its first year alone, each at US$2.39.

While television was experiencing amazing growth during the 1950s, manufacturers saw a potential for sales. Manufacturers grew to include ADCO Liberty, American Thermos (later King Seeley Thermos, or KST), Kruger Manufacturing Company, Landers, Frary and Clark (Universal), Okay Industries, and a number of other producers through the 1980s.

The first use of plastics was the lunch box handle, but later spread to the entire box, with the first molded plastic boxes produced during the 1960s. Vinyl lunch boxes debuted in 1959.

During the 1960s, the lunch box had few changes. The vacuum bottle included in them, however, steadily evolved during the course of the decade and into the 1970s. What was originally a steel vacuum bottle with glass liner, cork or rubber stopper, and bakelite cup became an all-plastic bottle, with insulated foam rather than vacuum. Aladdin produced glass liners into the 1970s, but they were soon replaced with plastic.

In some South American countries, a lunch box is called "lonchera", especially among school children, in clear assimilation of the English word "lunch".

In India, a lunchbox is commonly referred to as a “tiffin carrier” or a “tiffin box”.[7]

Today, lunch boxes are generally made of plastic, with foam insulation, and an aluminium/vinyl interior. As a result, they are usually much better at retaining their temperature but are less rigid/protective. However, metal lunch boxes are still produced, just not as popular as they were in the 1960 through 1980's.

Some lunch boxes, including those from the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes sell into the thousands of dollars.

• A Superman DVD set was released in a case resembling a tin lunch box, albeit notably smaller.
• A Nintendo DS starter kit was released in a case resembling a tin lunch box with New Super Mario Bros. graphics.
• The collector's edition of Fallout 3 was made available in a metal Vault-Tec lunch box, the likes of which can be found throughout the game world itself.

Health concerns came to light in August 2002, when the Center for Environmental Health discovered that many popular vinyl lunch boxes contained dangerously high levels of lead. Many, though not all, were pulled from the shelves.[8]

In 2001, most major manufacturers began testing their lunch boxes for lead levels, remedied the issue, and labeled their boxes as lead free.[9]

Many schools in the United States do not allow metal lunch boxes to be brought to school because they might be used as weapons [10].

In the United States, the lunch box or lunch pail has been used as a symbol of the working class. The phrase 'lunch pail Democrat' is used to classify populist politicians who attempt to gain the votes of the working class.[11]

• Bento – Japan
• Dosirak – Korea
• Tiffin carrier – India
• Tiffin box – Bangladesh

Media related to Lunch boxes at Wikimedia Commons

• History of Lunchboxes, Retrieved June 4, 2013.