Few People Know That A Village Near Cleveland Is The Birthplace Of The Drinking Straw
By Nikki Rhoades|Published March 18, 2020
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Nikki Rhoades
Author
Nikki is a lifelong Ohioan with a love for literature. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Akron and has enjoyed publishing her written work since 2007. She has a love of travel and does so frequently, though she believes that home is where the heart is — she continues to work in and around Cleveland as a digital content specialist to this day, working on everything from commercial scripts and social media posts to grassroots marketing initiatives.
Over the years, a series of incredibly bright inventors and industrialists have called Cleveland home. However, such brilliance and innovation is not confined to Greater Cleveland — it also spans just outside of the metropolitan area and all throughout the state. Believe it or not, one community claims that the modern drinking straw was invented in Ohio — and that’s something they’ve intertwined with local identity. Prepare to take a virtual visit to Lisbon, Ohio!
Lisbon, Ohio is a pretty community of just 2,000 residents located roughly 90 minutes away from Cleveland.
Lisbon is a modest village in Columbiana County. It's a blip on most people's radar, and few travelers tend to stop here. However, it has an interesting culture that's worth seeing.
There's a lot of history in this community, from canal era locks to historic buildings.
Lisbon was, believe it or not, the second town to be plotted in Ohio. Ohio was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803, but Lisbon — called New Lisbon at the time — was established as a settlement on February 16, 1803.
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The first newspaper in Ohio was established and launched here, and this community also has another secret — it is where the modern drinking straw was born.
Straws, as you probably know, have been around for thousands of years. They were first used by the ancient Sumerians, and they continued to take on different forms as the human culture grew more technologically advanced. But the modern straw? Before paper, plastic, or reusable straws hit the scene, people were drinking from ryegrass straw, which would leave an icky, grassy taste in the mouth.
According to documents from the U.S. Patent Office, Louis H. Britton and H.W. Morrow, assignors of Union Manufacturing Company, patented a machine for making "drinking tubes" in Lisbon, Ohio.
While there is limited information out there on Louis Harvey Britton and Henry Wilson Morrow, they have a history of inventing together. Their earliest patents date from before New Lisbon was shortened to Lisbon, a change that occurred in 1895. Their patent for a sucker or drinking tube machine appears in Volume 100 of the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, which was published in 1902.
And with the invention of such a machine came an improvement on the "sucker" design.
To be quite blunt, their invention was made to prevent the build-up of backwash in beverages. On the "suction end" of their drinking straw, they introduced a flathead that would not draw saliva back into your drink as soon as suction ceased. It was also made with a coating of "any suitable material and preferably contains an antiseptic" to add strength and to prevent collapse. You can find the patent here.
Mass production of plastic straws would come at a later date, but this quirky community still prides itself on paving the way for such advancements.
This quirky piece of history is definitely something to be proud of.
Who knew that the modern drinking straw was invented in Ohio?! This is a tale that’s almost too quirky for the history books.
You’ll find that many commonplace objects were born much closer to home. Check out our list of Cleveland creations for more insight into local inventions.
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