Innovating in a 90-year-old industry: for packing tape, making everything old new again. From: Fairfield County Business Journal | Date: May 3, 2004| Author: Gurliacci, David | COPYRIGHT 2004 Westfair Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Packing tape is mostly made of plastic, usually dispensed with a hand-held device and hasn't changed much in its function or form in the past 90 years.

None of those statements is true for Better Packages Inc. of Shelton, a maker of machines that dispense packing tape.

When the company was founded in 1917, Better Packages' original dispensers were based on a 1912 patent by Thomas Edison, and the company has been innovating ever since, said Philip White, presid...