Bendy straws: invented with screws and dental floss
Somewhere around 3000 B.C. people figured out how to make drinking straws out of wood and even from gold.
We believe the reason straws were invented was to prevent people from drinking unwanted particles which settle at the bottom of cups holding fermented drinks.
In the 1880s, Marvin Chester Stone had the radical idea to develop paper straws. Straws at that time were commonly made from rye grass which would easily dissolve in liquid. Marvin's paper straws were coated in paraffin wax, allowing them to stay intact for longer.
50 years later, Joseph Friedman's daughter was too short to reach the tip of the straw of her milkshake at the table. So Joseph had an idea to create a straw that could bend.
To create the bendable section, Joseph inserted a screw into a paper straw and wrapped dental floss around the tube over the screw thread to create ridges. When the screw was removed, the straw retained its flexible shape which allowed it to bend without kinking or blocking liquid flowing through it. He named it the Flex-Straw.
The Flex-Straw design proved to be incredibly useful to hospital patients, which were Joseph's first repeat customers.
Even the smallest of designs, born from everyday moments, can leave a lasting impact on the people they were intended for and sometimes benefit others in unexpected ways.
