The container in all its glory and variants

Since about the 1830s, shipping containers have been used as a way to easily transport multiple goods in a single package, rather than separately loading all of the individual items of a cargo onto a ship. Back then containers were produced mostly out of wood and were not suited for the stacking of one upon the other. The stackable container as we know it first appeared around the time of the Second World War, but was still more limited in application. Nowadays shipping containers can be found worldwide, and allow for easy transport by rail, road, or water.