suck up! :)

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The drinking straw is a device used for sucking up a liquid - usually a drink. A thin tube of plastic (especially polystyrene) or other material, straight or with an accordion-like living hinge, it is employed by being held with one end in the mouth and another end in the drink. Muscular action reduces air pressure in the mouth, whereupon atmospheric pressure forces the drink up the straw.

The first straws were made by the Sumerians, and used for drinking beer (as to avoid the solid byproducts of fermentation). Argentinians use a similar device called bombilla that acts as both a straw and sieve for drinking mate tea. The modern drinking straw was patented in 1888.

In 1888, Marvin Stone patented the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws. Stone was already a producer of paper cigarette holders. His idea was to make paper drinking straws. Before his straws, beverage drinkers were using the natural rye grass straws.

Stone made his prototype straw by winding strips of paper around a pencil and gluing it together. He then experimented with paraffin-coated manila paper, so the straws would not become soggy while someone was drinking. Marvin Stone decided the ideal straw was 8 1/2-inches long with a diameter just wide enough to prevent things like lemon seeds from being lodged in the tube.

(text source: wikipedia)

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