Gilmore T. Schjeldahl, a self-taught inventor from North Dakota, is credited with creating the first plastic-coated airsickness bag, which debuted on Northwest Oriental Airlines planes in 1949. The vomit bag provides a discreet option for passengers experiencing motion sickness, anxiety or claustrophobia. Schjeldahl developed the plastic-coated paper bag for food packaging, which turned out to be an ideal solution for the motion sickness problem faced by commercial airlines. Today, modern airsick bags are printed with games and puzzles, and there is a subculture of airline memorabilia collectors who seek out unused motion sickness bags.
Edison may have had his light bulb, Bell may have had his telephone, but only Gilmore T. Schjeldahl, a self-taught inventor from North Dakota, has his “vomit bag.” Mr. Schjeldahl is generally credited with creating the first plastic-coated airsickness bag, which debuted on Northwest Oriental Airlines planes in 1949. This was not the first vomit bag ever used by passengers or by air-troubled crews on commercial flights, but at least it was the first one specifically designed for this purpose.
A vomit bag, also known as a sickness bag or airsick bag, is a lined paper bag generally stored in the same holders as in-flight magazines and other airline-provided propaganda. If a passenger suddenly becomes nauseous due to motion sickness, claustrophobia or an anxiety attack, the vomit bag provides a more discreet option for vomiting.
During the early days of air travel, motion or airsickness was a common occurrence, as planes were generally smaller and more susceptible to the effects of air turbulence. Commercial airlines have been faced with a significant problem, as the sight and sound of passengers vomiting could prove detrimental to future business, not to mention the aircraft hygiene issue. Various types of disposable containers were tried on early commercial flights, but it wasn’t until Schjeldahl developed a plastic-coated paper bag that a suitable solution for the “vomit bag” was found.
However, Schjeldahl himself was not working on a future airsickness bag. He was hired by the Armor meat company to work on new food packaging with the new polyethylene plastic. A plastic-lined bag originally designed for food packaging turned out to be an ideal solution to the motion sickness problem faced by commercial airlines, so Schjeldahl’s invention became the prototype for future motion sickness bags. air everywhere.
Because many modern passenger aircraft are larger and passengers experience less turbulence in flight, a much smaller percentage of passengers have become airsick. Airlines still provide airsickness bags, but very often these bags contain other information, such as emergency procedures. Some modern airsick bags are printed with games and puzzles, or at least scoreboards for card games.
There is actually a subculture of airline memorabilia collectors who seek out unused motion sickness bags as part of their collections. Original bags designed by Schjeldahl are popular, as are bags from foreign airlines and defunct domestic airlines like Eastern. A barf bag collector is said to have over 5,000 items in his personal collection, and collectors meet regularly to display their recent acquisitions or trade with others.
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