Listen to the podcast and read the article about the history of the drinking straw. What is the most surprising thing you have learned about the straw and its history? Can you think of any other products that started out life to meet a specific need but evolved to be used by everyone? Answer these questions in this week’s blog post.
For me, the most surprising thing about the drinking straw was “created” so long ago. I would never guess that as I always seen straws kind of modern “quirk”.
Although, I am curious about why people several hundreds ago would even use them, did they use them to drink altogether from the same bowl or something? Not sure.
Also, the fact that it took the bendy straw to gain popularity so long seems counterintuitive to me as it is, in my opinion, so much more convenient to use than the straight one.
As for the products with similar story, I believe a while ago I read that Coca-Cola was invented to help people overcome their morphine addiction (that they usually acquired after being medically prescribed to take it during treatment after a war (i don’t remember which was)). It originally had cocaine in it (extracted from the some leaf), which was later removed.
P.S. found the source https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Coca-Cola-Company interestingly enough, of the Coca Cola website they don’t say anything about the cocaine 🙂
also, I found this website, while searching about Coca Cola, that lists 10 other inventions: https://www.businessinsider.com/successful-products-that-were-originally-intended-for-a-completely-different-purpose-2016-3
including Bubble Wrap, 7UP (spoiler: also was a drug), Frisbees, Chainsaws…