‘Containeristan’: When and how was the container invented?

In view of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest, the capital Islamabad has not only been sealed off from the inside, but the entrances and exits of the city have also been blocked with containers.

Islamabad is also derisively called ‘Containeristan’ on social media platforms because it seems incomplete without containers whenever there are protests and sit-ins.

Similarly, whenever there is a big protest or dharna by political parties in Pakistan, a container is arranged for the central leaders on which stage, sound system and other equipments are installed.

However, these containers were never intended for this purpose and the purpose for which they were designed, brought about an economic revolution in the world.

When and how was the container invented?

MC Containers is a leading Canadian container services company that rents out containers to cargo ships around the world.

According to the same company, the history of making Canterbury is very interesting and it is in 1766 when a man named Janis Brandley of America built a boat for transporting coal.

In the same boat they made 10 places to keep small containers and in this the coal was loaded into the boat and moved from one place to another.

However, these containers were small in size and these containers were made in 1795 by the Englishman Benjamin Otran and with the help of horses, a container full of coal was taken out of the coal mine and offloaded after reaching the destination.

After that, the trend continued and in some countries in the 1830s, coal was transported from one place to another by rail in wooden containers that could fit as many as four containers.

This was followed in the 1840s by the use of iron container boxes to transport goods, and in the 20th century, shortly before World War II, containers shaped like the present day containers began to be used.

Similarly, during the journey between London and Paris in 1927, passengers’ luggage was transported in iron containers.

The second industrial revolution and containers

The second industrial revolution began in the 19th and 20th centuries and saw an increase in the movement of cargo by sea.

However, according to the MC Containers article, loading these containers with goods required a lot of time and labor and sometimes took weeks to load the goods.

However, no standard or size for containers had been formulated during this time, nor was there a formal mechanism to check the quality of containers.

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From trucking business to container building

Now coming to the modern day container making, the inventor of which is considered to be Malcolm McLean who was born in 1913 in America.

After many years of hard work, Malcolm started his own truck manufacturing company in 1934 and at that time he had five trucks of his own.

Once Malcolm was transporting cotton in a truck and in 1937 he noticed that both time and money were wasted in loading the truck and packing the goods.

Malcolm’s company was one of the largest trucking companies in the United States by 1950, and at that time they had 1750 trucks and 37 transportation terminals, and the company was among the five largest companies in the United States.

However, at the same time, the weight and tax for the delivery of goods in the United States had begun, and Malcolm’s truck drivers had to pay daily fines for violations.

It was at this time that modern containers began to be manufactured and in 1955 Malcolm sold his trucking business and took some debt to buy the Pan-Atlantic Shipping Company, now the Sealand Company, which already had a number of ports. There were also terminals.

According to Malcolm, a container would be much better than a truck because it would be easier to load and transport the goods, while Malcolm’s company also started to standardize containers.

Instead of the existing 20 or 40 inch containers, they made 35 inch containers which were strong, durable and also installed a locking system.

Malcolm also bought some World War II tankers and modified them to hold 58 containers, and the first container-laden tanker sailed from New Jersey to Houston, USA.

Later in the 1960s, Malcolm’s company started selling containers to Asian countries including Scotland, Holland, Vietnam, and by 1969, the company had 36 container ships, 27,000 containers and 30 ports.

After that containers were started to be used for shipping cargo all over the world and now container is a convenient means of shipping goods.

The lower cost of container shipping can be seen from the fact that in 1956 the cost of shipping goods by other means was about $5 per ton, which dropped to $0.16 per ton after the invention of the container.