Lunchbox - WikiHQ

thumb|Lunch box and [[Vacuum flask|vacuum bottle owned by Harry S. Truman]]

thumb|A collection of lunch boxes for school students

thumb|Insulated [[thermal bag with ice packs]]

A lunch box (or lunchbox) is a hand-held container used to transport food, usually to work or to school. It is commonly made of metal or plastic, is reasonably airtight and often has a handle for carrying.

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also referred to as a lunch pail or lunch kit, is used to store food to be taken anywhere. -->

In the United States

In the United States a lunchbox may also be termed a lunch pail, lunch bucket, or lunch tin, either as one or two words.

The concept of a food container has existed for a long time, but it was not until people began using tobacco tins to carry meals in the early 20th century, followed by the use of lithographed images on metal, that the containers became a staple of youth, and a marketable product. It has most often been used by schoolchildren to take packed lunches, or a snack, from home to school. 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. Patents started to appear for lunchbox inventions in the 1860s.

Vacuum bottles, which enabled hot or cold beverages to remain at optimal temperature until lunchtime, became a common component of the lunch box. In 1920, The American Thermos Bottle Co. produced "the first metal lunch box for kids" to aid selling their vacuum bottles.

Manufacturers grew to include ADCO Liberty, 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.

School safety

Beginning in Florida during the 1970s, many schools in the United States banned metal lunch boxes. One of the last metal lunchboxes to be widely produced was one with a design promoting Rambo: First Blood Part II.

In 2001, most major manufacturers began testing their lunch boxes for lead levels, remedying the issue, and labeling their boxes as lead-free.

Modern lunch boxes

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

Collecting

Some lunch boxes, including those from the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes sell into the thousands of dollars. In 1999, a "1954 Superman lunch box, made by Adco Liberty" was "gaveled down for $11,500" ("the highest auction price ever paid for a lunch box").

Political symbolism

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. The New York Times printed in 2008 that Joe Biden is a lunch-bucket Democrat. While his father had been wealthy early in life, by the time Biden was born, the family was broke.

Outside the United States

thumb|Japanese [[magewappa]]

thumb|100px|left|Metal lunchbox [[tub (container)|tubs with latches for big meals]]

Japan has a tradition of bento, individual portable meals, that dates back several centuries and influenced other countries in South East Asia. Bento generally consists of rice and a number of other food items, transported within a lunchbox that has compartments to keep each item separate from each other.

In Mumbai, India and Karachi, Pakistan, there are extensive lunchbox delivery services, continuing a business model that originated in 1890, where delivery staff called dabawallas pick up metal tiffin carrier lunchboxes containing freshly cooked food, usually from the recipient's home, deliver them to people at their place of work and return empty lunchboxes.

In Korea, the similar concept is known as dosirak.

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

References

External links

History of Lunchboxes , Retrieved June 4, 2013.