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Roofing - 6mm Perma-Frost White Chippings
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Specialist Aggregates Ltd Marine Arts
Flat Pack invented in North Wales
Sunday 02 December, 2012
News Brief

Welsh slate trough pre-dates IKEA flat pack.

Full Story:

Google "who invented flat pack furniture?" and you will soon find stories referring to the Ikea draftsman who designed a flat-pack table in 1956, or to Eric Sauder of the Ohio based furniture company who obtained a patent in 1953 again for a flat pack occasional table.

However, Specialist aggregates can now reveal that the "flat pack " concept actually originated in a Welsh slate quarry in the 19th Century!

Recently we acquired a number of random broken slate slabs which were originally the sides of a stone trough. Unfortunately the item had met with a sad end, but the method of holding the sides together was clear enough.

As our images show, the sides of the trough were attached by hidden bolts drilled through the thickness of the slate. The bolts were fastened with a lock-nut recessed into the end of the bolt hole, and the hole plugged not with a modern day plastic grommet but with a lump of lead.

The method was probably devised not so much as to save space during transportation as with today's "flat pack", but to make each of the side panels manageable as slate of this thickness (35mm) would have weighed in the order of 85kg per SqM (17 lbs per sqft ).

Unfortunately, we are unable to confirm if incomprehensible assembly instructions were supplied in Welsh!


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Flat Pack invented in North Wales
Flat Pack invented in North Wales
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