Talk:Drinking straw

Old discussion

Does anybody know of a short hard plastic straw w/ 1 end serrated for driving into an orange. I had them as a kid in Florida and can't find them anywhere now. You use it by: "mushing" up the orange with its skin on, thereby making it very juicy, then rotate in the serrated edge of straw. After straw breaks thru skin, remove the roughly 3/4 inch diameter piece of skin, then drive straw in to center & have fresh-squeezed OJ...

75.85.171.107 00:59, 3 November 2007 (UTC) Gordon

Can anybody answer this perplexing question? Why do straws have stripes? Thanks (StrawLoverrr69)

i think there is clear plagerism involved. sections of this page were copyed from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstraws.htm i am not sure what the protocall is i will look it up. 70.109.191.242 22:29, 17 April 2006 (UTC)Ben

I don't see this so I am removing the banner Ckswift 23:41, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

SQUIDs

Drinking straws are also frequently used as sample holders for SQUID magnetometers. ...I sometimes put pencils in my ears and let them wiggle. Still I guess it is not that much of importance to say this on the pencil article. Or did I miss the significance of straws in SQUID applications? --Abdull 15:50, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Materials

The article mentions modern straws are made of plastic. Today, I unexpectedly became intensely interested in the origin of the straw and more importantly what materials were used for ancient straws. While I admit the bit about Sumerians is interesting, I came here expecting more about the history of the straw. And what were they made of before plastic? Wood? Metal?

This article seems a lot shorter than it should be. Besides the part about the sumerians, most of the research can be done by looking through the paper goods section of a grocery store. I think it needs more about straw manufacturing, history, companies, etc.

Most probably the precursor of the modern plastic straw was made of reed. The following is a passage from Chapter XVII of the novel Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens:

But Mr Tapley made no answer; merely plunging a reed into the mixture – which caused a pleasant commotion among the pieces of ice – and signifying by an expressive gesture that it was to be pumped up through that agency by the enraptured drinker.

This proves that the reed drawing straw had already been invented at the time Dickens wrote the novel – which was some decades before 1888. Jane Fairfax 11:44, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

In the 1950's I saw (and used) natural straws for cold drinks in cafés in Mediterranean countries. Perhaps it's chronicled somewhere, if anyone cares to go looking. __Just plain Bill 16:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Picture

I'm sorry I can see the confusion myself but although that man has stripes as in common with many drinking straws, he himself is not in fact a drinking straw.Dylanjbyrne 18:58, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what picture is meant by the user above, maybe the error has already been corrected.

A number of other straws (crazy straw, metal straws) are mentioned but no pictures are available.Jeffreyprows (talk) 17:06, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Crazy Straw Safety?

Does anyone know of any studies on whether curvy straws are safe? When I was a kid, my Mom wouldn't let me use them, because she said bacteria would get stuck in there. I'm wondering whether to let me kids use them.... Asbruckman (talk) 20:05, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

I'd say there is no practical health difference between straight and curvy. If you re-use it, wash it out in hot water, they are equally (un)likely to contain bacteria, or do you any harm. Suck on! Amniarix (talk) 12:01, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Also can anyone comment on the "drinking through a straw gets you more drunk" controversy johnnybriggs (talk) 23:13, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Citing early straws?

The page mentions that early drinking straws were literal hollow straws, but no citation is given. I have an old illustration from the 19th century from a magazine -- I think maybe Harpers -- showing a girl drinking from a reed straw. Would this count, and if so how would I cite it?--68.35.11.25 (talk) 10:40, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Introduction

I think the introduction needs a re-write, and all historical references regrouped together.

"A drinking straw is a short tube used for transferring a liquid - usually a drink from one location to another (such as from a cup, to one's mouth)."

"From one location to another"? Please tell me how the destination can be anything except your mouth! Otherwise how do you generate the suction? "Usually a drink"? It's a drinking straw! Sure you could suck up custard, crude oil or moon dust, but it's designed to be (and most commonly) used to drink with. Weasel words.

"The earliest drinking straws were hollow stems of grass [...] The first straws were made by the Sumerians [...]"

We can't have it both ways. Either the Sumerians got there first, or grass did.

I'll work on a new version. Amniarix (talk) 12:21, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Probable RS

• The Amazing History and the Strange Invention of the Bendy Straw - The Atlantic website. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:38, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Bendy straws

The joint that lets you adjust the angle of a bendy straw is technically considered bellows joint, not a living hinge. A living hinge is strictly a two-dimentional feature, and is found on injection-molded or cast items. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.243.168.169 (talk) 16:47, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

muscular action

Is this another one of those things like breathing through the nose that I just never picked up on people doing? I thought you inhaled with your lungs, filled your mouth, then swallowed.