We're trying something new... (Level 1)

In 1937, a young truck driver named Malcolm McLean had a simple idea. He carried cotton from North Carolina to New Jersey. At the port, workers unloaded his truck by hand. It took almost a whole day. He thought, why not put the whole truck box on the ship? That would take only minutes. McLean started a truck company, but port loading stayed slow and costly. In 1955, he sold his company and began a shipping business. He worked with an engineer named Keith Tantlinger to build a strong metal box. This box could move from a truck to a ship easily. They used an old ship and called it Ideal X. The shipping container changed the world. It made trade faster and cheaper. It helped China become a big manufacturing country. McLean's simple idea had a huge effect.