Containerization
By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one such. "Simple timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse drawn carts by crane". By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail.