Research Paper

Earl Tupper

Introduction

Suppose having to waste food every single day because there is nowhere to store it. That all changed when  Earl Silas Tupper opened his own company called Tupperware and created the first plastic containers. Before this invention was created people were using shower caps to cover leftover foods. This invention made people's lives desirable, especially housewives. This invention was not only used to store food it was also used for many other things. Earl Tupper was a very successful man who always wanted to help people and wanted to build his own company. After the plastic container invention, Tupperware created more items which helped even more people. These present different companies around the world design plastic containers. Tupperware did not only sell plastic containers, he also founded related home products that helped people around their kitchen and their homes. Earl Tupper made people’s kitchen live and outside living more comfortable not only by inventing plastic containers but also by creating his plastic company(Tupperware Plastics Company).

The Early Life of Earl Silas Tupper

             Earl Tupper was born in 1907 in New Hampshire. Tupper grew up on different farms throughout Central Massachusetts. Tupper's mother Lulu “took in laundry and borders.” While his father ran a family farm and Greenhouses (Earl Silas Tupper). By living on a farm, at the age of ten, he started his business selling products that they produced from their farm. At the age of 17, Earl Tupper graduated from high school (Earl Tupper). After graduation, he worked for two more years at his family business. By the age of 19, he was determined to become a millionaire by the time he turned 30 years old. Unfortunately, he did not fulfill his goal. Later Tupper worked various jobs, including mail clerk and on the railroad, and was married to Marie Whitcomb at the age of twenty-four eventually having four sons and a daughter. During that time, he took a course on how to become a surgeon and started his own business called Tupper TreeDoctors Company, during the Great Depression. The company remained in business even with the bad economy at the time. His company lasted through years until it went bankrupt when he turned 30. One year later in 1937, Tupper began to work in plastics at the DuPont Corporation, at the recommendation of DuPont scientist Bernard Doyle (Earl Silas Tupper 1907-1983). He later learned the basics of what would become his career.

The Beginning of Earl Silas Tupper's Career

Tupper worked at DuPont Corporation for only one year. “In 1938, at the age of 31, he took the experience and expertise he had gained in plastics design and manufacturing at DuPont and set up a business of his own – The Earl S. Tupper Company’’ (Earl Silas Tupper 1907-1983).

He bought a few machines from DuPont Company so he could start designing and developing plastic products for the market. After developing and designing the plastic for the market, he opened his first Tupper Plastic Company in Farnumsville Massachusetts in 1942. “Tupper dreamed of the Tupperization of every kitchen in America’’ (Earl Silas Tupper 1907-1983).

For Tupper, it was really hard getting the acquired materials for plastic production because he started his business during World War Two. He did not have enough materials to start his plastic production completely. Lucky Tupper obtained government contracts through DuPont. By producing important things that the government uses for war. Like gas masks and Navy signal lamp maps etc.

Earl Tupper had always wanted to help people by creating kitchen tools. After World War Two ended, Tupper only focused on creating kitchen utensils to help people with items that were in the kitchen and also used in the kitchen. This led to Tupper’s business becoming well known. 

Earl Tupper's Significant Accomplishments

Sales for Tupperware are very tough.“Many of his earliest designs were offered as premiums with other products, such as a plastic cigarette case with the purchase of a packet of cigarettes or an unbreakable tumbler with a toothbrush’’(Earl Silas Tupper 1907-1983). But for Tupper, it was very hard to make the customers notice and purchase his plastic products(Earl Silas Tupper 1907-1983). “One woman who began independently selling Tupperware was Brownie Wise, a divorced, single mother in Detroit with a knack for hostess parties’’(How Tupperware Works). Before Tupperware became well-known, housewives often covered leftover food dishes with shower caps( How Tupperware Works). Wise pointed up that there was no need to keep using those bathroom accessories in the kitchen(How Tupperware Works). Tupper’s locking lids made him a 1950s kitchen revelation (How Tupperware Works). Wise had been selling such huge quantities of Tupperware at home parties that, when Earl Tupper noticed the sales figures in 1951, he invited her to visit Massachusetts(Earl Silas Tupper).“He decided to sell Tupperware exclusively through home parties and to make Wise his company's vice president and head of all sales. Meanwhile, while Tupper continued to invent and produce Tupperware in Massachusetts, Wise became the boss at Tupperware Home Parties Inc. in Florida( Earl Silas Tupper). “In 1951, as Earl Tupper's novel wares gathered dust in American department stores, he took a cue from Wise and others successfully selling Tupperware at hostess parties and abandoned in-store sales completely’’(How Tupperware Works). Tupper moved the business model to direct sales only and created Tupperware Home Parties(How Tupperware Works).“Tupper designed every new piece of Tupperware himself. He worked closely with his most trusted machine men and he set up demonstration kitchens where his products could be tested at the factory in New England and at Tupperware Home Parties in Florida’’(How Tupperware Works). By 1958, the relationship between Earl Tupper and Browne Wise had soured(How Tupperware Works). Wise had become the public face of the company, and Tupper was very media-shy (How Tupperware Works). “When the press suggested Wise was responsible for Tupperware's success, and that she could be equally successful selling any product, Tupper couldn't stand it any longer’’(Earl Silas Tupper). In 1958, Earl Tupper kicked Brownie Wise out of the company, he didn't give any reasons(Earl Silas Tupper). “Within a year, Tupper sold out to Justin Dart of Rexall Drug Company for $16 million, and also divorced his wife. He bought himself an island in Central America, and eventually moved to Costa Rica, giving up his U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes’’(Earl Silas Tupper).

The impact Tupper had on the World

Tupper had a very big positive impact on the world. Tupper created plastic containers for storing food and also founded a related home products company(Earl Silas Tupper). “Back then, housewives often covered dishes of leftover food with shower caps, but Wise emphasized that there was no longer any need to use those bathroom accessories in the kitchen”(How Tupperware Works). Tupper’s invention of locking lids stopped people from using shower caps, it made people's kitchen lives easier and more suitable. Tupper also created his own company. Wise started selling upper’s products, which led to her becoming vice president of Tupperware and head of all sales. Tupper gave Wise an opportunity to have a job. Women were given a job by doing Tupperware home parties to sell their products(Earl Silas Tupper). People were given the chance to have a job and an opportunity to help other people in their homes. In 1958 Tupper sold his company and moved to Costa Rica. After he died many of his Tupperware products ran out. Over the years it has improved and now it helps a lot of people in their homes. Tupper’s design ideas still influence the plastics industry, the food industry, and the lives of people around the world who store their food in plastic containers with lids that seal(Earl Silas Tupper).

The lesson I learned from Earl Silas Tupper's Life

Earl Tupper was a very solitary and reserved person. His characteristics made him the creator of plastic containers. His solitude made him create his plastic container and his own company called Tupperware. Tupper had a goal of becoming a millionaire by the age of 30 even though he did not fulfill he found a job that helped him start creating his designs that would later become plastic containers. 

His love for producing and creating things never stopped even after he sold his company and moved to Costa Rica he still held a journal in which he kept his creations that had not been in the sale(Earl Silas Tupper). We learned from Tupper that when things are not the way you thought they would be, you can't just give up, you have to find another way to rise from there and make it to the top. What we learned from him will help us through school and life because sometimes people fail at the things that they do but there is always another way that people can make it. Earl Tupper is a person you can look up to because he had a dream since little, and even though he did not succeed in that dream he still made it. He shows you how you will take different paths that will help you reach your goal, and also how to never give up on your dreams. 

Works Cited

Conger, Cristen. “How Tupperware Works.” HowStuffWorks, people.howstuffworks.com/tupperware2.htm.

“Earl S. Tupper.’’ Plastics Hall of Fame, plasticshof.org/members/earl-s-Tupper/.

“Earl Silas Tupper.” American Experience, pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-Tupper.

“Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983).’’ Tupperware, tupperwarecollectie.nl/earl-tupper-en/.

“Earl Tupper.” Lemelson, lemelson.mit.edu/resources/earl-Tupper.