The history, evolution and future of drinking straws . Drinking straws represent one of the oldest eating utensils ever made, but its popularity only came with the industrial revolution of 1800s, introduction of rye grass straw, and later industrial produced paper straws. The proboscis is a long tubular part of the anatomy found in many insects. The idea was to … Early on, natural rye grass straws were used by beer-drinking Sumerians as filters for solid particulate byproducts of fermentation. During the 1800s, people used rye grass straws, but this straw had its share of problems. The oldest drinking straw in existence, found in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 BCE, was a gold tube inlaid with the precious blue stone lapis lazuli. Pixabay Later, Stone developed the modern drinking straw. History Early examples. A Brief History of How Plastic Straws Took Over the World. The first known straws were made by the Sumerians, and were used for drinking beer, probably to avoid the solid byproducts of fermentation that sink to the bottom. The History of Drinking Straws. History. Spanning from Mesopotamia to South America, the drinking straw has an international history. Prior to Stone's invention, people used natural rye grass straws, which imparted an undesirable grassy flavor in beverages. Kids drinking from flavored straws. They are one of the top 5 contributors to plastic marine waste, with millions of plastic straws being used every day in the U.S. alone. He wrapped strips of paper around a pencil, glued them together, and soon had an early prototype of paper drinking straws. Drinking straws with an adjustable upper bend, known as ‘bendy straws’, ‘articulated straws’, or ‘flexi straws’, made their appearance in the 1930s, created and patented in 1937 by American Joseph Friedman after his young daughter had difficulty drinking through a straight straw in her milkshake. Sure, before 1888 there were primitive drinking straws, but this article published on The Atlantic states, “The drinking tube is practically as old as history. Nature often inspires the best human inventions, and we can see inspiration for the straw in insects. The proboscis is a long tubular part of the anatomy found in many insects. His idea was to make paper drinking straws. Kellogg’s introduced a line of cereal straws in 2007. History of beer A Brief History of Drinking Tubes While plastic straws are a recent invention, humans have been using hollow, cylindrical tubes to bring liquid to their lips for centuries.