Interesting programme on 5 select. All.about how shipping and the invention of the 20ft container has changed the world.
Almost finished was on 21.00 to 2200 but probaly on plus1 or catch up
edd1974:
Interesting programme on 5 select. All.about how shipping and the invention of the 20ft container has changed the world.Almost finished was on 21.00 to 2200 but probaly on plus1 or catch up
Not seen the C5 mega version, but this is well worth a watch…
The Box That Changed Britain
youtu.be/bIEH0Db0XVc
Fascinating story, the container enabled globalisation and furnished us with the lives we live today.
Most importantly the guy who invented it refused to patent it so it would be adopted worldwide as the standard.
Much like Tim Berners Lee and the WWW which had similar implications on the world.
Yeah he invented it. Programme said he gave the patent to the US army during the Vietnam war. As they needed a way to move tonnes of equipment quickly and easily.
They tweaked the design into the container as we now know it
Lot of old footage.
Also interesting bit about how China is building ports all over the world and is slowly dominating the shipping container world
No mention of the road transport needed either end of the containers journey apart from pointing out the versatility of port / ship/ train/ truck travel .
edd1974:
Also interesting bit about how China is building ports all over the world and is slowly dominating the shipping container world
They’re building roads and infrastructure all over the world too, especially Africa.
There is a good book available called- The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
It recounts the story of McLean too and he was originally a truck driver. The main advantage the shipping container brought was standardization. Even in the past decades as changes have come into the world of containers, these prove to be problematic.
I remember back around about 1990 some 45 foot Sea Land boxes started to appear in from the USA into Ireland. They were difficult as trailers were then typically 40 feet with short wheelbase 3.2 and 3.4 m tractor units. Whether the boxes were legal or not I don’t know, I suspect not. Also a number of years later Bell Lines (and Geest I think) introduced a 22 pallet reefer that was 2.6m wide. This was problematic for the guide channels on certain ships, all the millimetres add up on the beam of a ship. They then also later brought along 45 foot boxes with tapered corners which were patented. They had to work about 1993/94 with EU legislators to allow them become legal. The 9’6" high containers too, back in the 90’s were the exception and now they are seen almost as the norm. They had their challenges on the back roads of Ireland too, at that time Maersk and Containerships were big proponents of them. Anyhow, little changes in complex supply chains cause unforeseen problems. Malcom McLean really was a visionary to see fit to standardize and get it all to work in unison
Sea Land continued to innovate and even in 1972/73 they built Algol class ships which to this very day are the fastest cargo vessels at sea with a capable speed of over 33 knots (38mph). Maersk tried unsuccessfully to mothball the Sea Land brand when they acquired them, they subsequently reinstated it.
Other good reads container fanatics are,The Development of Containerization by Hans van Ham & Joan Rijsenbrij or Creating Global Opportunities: Maersk Line in Containerization 1973 - 2013 by Jephson & Morgan.
Another far more simpler invention is the humble pallet! No idea who came up with it, but think what our jobs would be like without them!