Cellophane is a thin, transparent material that crinkles when you handle it and was once everywhere: wrapping candy bars, covering gift baskets, and protecting products in stores. Hold a piece up to the light and you can see right through it, but it's tougher than it looks.

Invented in 1908 by a Swiss chemist named Jacques Brandenberger, cellophane changed how things were packaged and sold. Before cellophane, you couldn't see what you were buying without opening the package. Store owners liked it because customers could inspect products without unwrapping them. Candy makers liked it because it kept their products fresh while showing off the colorful treats inside.

True cellophane is actually made from wood pulp, though today most transparent wrapping is plastic, which people still call cellophane even when it technically isn't.

You've probably heard cellophane mentioned in older songs and stories, like when someone describes the cellophane wrapper on a pack of gum or cellophane flowers in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” That distinctive crinkly sound became so familiar that it symbolized newness and special occasions, like the satisfying rustle of unwrapping something exciting.