Was there an expressed need for aluminum foil and someone made it, or did someone make it and convince us that we need it?

I think it began with a need to deflect aliens. So they came up with a thin, metal foil to wear as a hat.

People forget that plastics are a new technology. Before plastic seals, aluminum foil had to be the best thing since sliced bread to keep food fresh. Keeps light and air out. It is like when I try to tell my kids stuff used to be made of metal and wood and they roll their eyes like I am crazy.

I was the right product at the right time. Sort of like plastic containers were.

I’m sure somebody here is going to come up with the real reason it was invented and the story of how but all I know is that it sure as hell came in handy for my tin man costume that my mother made me when I was a Brownie!

ok, here is some history.

Parents were making the tin man costume out aluminum roofing sheets and kids were falling down, not getting home, drowning in mud puddles, you name it, so a great demand arose for a lighter weight wrap.

@Adirondackwannabe Lol. Funny, very funny. Luckily I was in the post aluminum roofing sheets crowd. My mother used oatmeal cartons covered in aluminum foil and a cut off Clorox bottle sprayed silver for my funnel hat. I looked amazing and survived the night intact!

@Earthgirl Necessity is the mother of invention.

Mothers, of necessity, have to invent.

Buzz Aldrin’s underpants, a little uncomfortable around the ballsack I imagine, but there you have it.