Keith Tantlinger, Builder of Cargo Container, Dies at 92

Keith Tantlinger, Builder of Cargo Container, Dies at 92:

pleasedontfront:

Mr. Tantlinger is credited with creating, in the 1950s, the first commercially viable modern shipping container, which changed the way nations do business.

It never ceases to amaze me, how just about everything that’s produced nowadays, at some point in time, finds its way inside a cargo container. Everything fits inside a container, and if the whole doesn’t, then its parts do. Those steel boxes are perhaps the only truly universal unit of measurement. A couple of weeks ago, I met a cargo ship captain and shared a creme de menthe and sprite (Bulgarian thing) with him. I asked about what he shipped — what was in all those containers that he floats around the world. His answer was something tot eh effect of: “I don’t know, I don’t give a shit about what’s in the containers…they’re containers and they have to move” Containerization is/was a fucking crazy thing. From the side-loading boxcar to the 48’ container well, to Marlon Brando v. the longshore union bosses, from building a better mouse trap to building a better box, and everything else.

via Tumblr http://thenelsontwins.tumblr.com/post/59933224202