Jewish Invention Myths: The Drinking Straw

Sometimes jewish invention myths are less about what they claim and more about how they are presented. The ‘Drinking Straw’ is one such example.

‘MNews’ offers as a good example of the power of a misleading title since they claim in the title that Joseph Friedman (who was jewish) invented the ‘Drinking Straw’ in 1937 but if you read the detail, you’ll notice it stipulates that drinking straws were already in wide use and what Joseph Friedman invented was actually the ‘Flexistraw’ not the drinking straw.

To wit:

‘Joseph Friedman – Drinking straw

In the mid-30s of the past century, drinking straws were already in use, but they were very uncomfortable. Joseph Friedman figured out how to fix that problem. He dropped in a screw, then wound dental floss around the outside creating ridges, and the straw bent. Only 20 years later, Friedman managed to establish mass production and earn millions of dollars on his invention.’ (1)

Aish does a lot better and specifies correctly that it was the ‘Flexistraw’ not the ‘Drinking Straw’ invented by Friedman.

To wit:

‘“THE LITTLE GENIUS.” THE FLEXISTRAW, THE IMPROVED FOUNTAIN PEN: JOSEPH B. FRIEDMAN (1900-1982)

The young genius would do well on Gefilte Tank! First generation American, the Ohioan, a son of Jacob David Friedman and Antoinette Grauer Friedman was already on the job by age 14. A patent king, his first, a better fountain pen, was issued in 1922 which he then sold to the Sheaffer Pen Company. In the mid-1930s. Seeing his young daughter Judith straw-struggle, he inserted a screw, and with dental floss, wrapped the straight straw in the screw threads. Voila, it bent! (Of course he removed the screw.) His initial patent for “The Drinking Tube” was issued in 1937. He got additional patents for construction and formation. As he couldn’t find an investor, he started producing his product himself, forming The Flexible Straw Corporation in 1939 in California. WWII halted his efforts until his brother-in-law and a family friend backed him. With his sister Betty’s business experience, the first flexible straw machine entered the market in the late 1940s. In 1950 the newly named Flex-Straw Co., took off! Now this is what I call turning spilt milk into major gelt.’ (2)

Boulder Jewish News also gets this right. (3)

Now let’s be clear: shall we?

The drinking straw has been widely used since it was first known to have been invented in ancient Sumer (aka Mesopotamia), (4) but the modern straw was created and patented in 1888 by the American Marvin Chester Stone. (5)

All Joseph Friedman did was to improve upon an existing invention by adding a flexible neck to the straw.

So, no: jews didn’t invent the drinking straw.

References

(1) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions

(2) https://aish.com/we-jews-little-known-jewish-inventions/

(3) https://boulderjewishnews.org/2009/an-informal-list-of-jewish-inventions-innovations-and-radical-ideas/

(4) https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/the-amazing-history-and-the-strange-invention-of-the-bendy-straw/248923/

(5) Ibid.