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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

-0001

1937

  • Work on this object began.

2014

2025

  • You found it!

Copy Of Patent For Drinking Tube (USA)

This is a Copy of patent for drinking tube. It was made by Joseph B. Friedman. It is dated September 28, 1937. Its medium is ink on paper.

Joseph Friedman’s best-known invention is the flexible straw and the company he formed to manufacture it became the focus of his inventive life. Friedman’s flexible straw, called a "Drinking Tube," was granted US Patent 2,094,268 on September 28, 1937. "The main object of my invention is to provide a soda straw or similar drinking tube with a flexible section so positioned that the tube may be bent during use without substantially reducing the diameter of the straw," Friedman wrote in his official patent submission.

It is credited Joseph B. Friedman Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, 2001.3031.

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  • Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
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Its dimensions are

H x W (document): 28.9 x 20 cm (11 3/8 x 7 7/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/51682445/ |title=Copy Of Patent For Drinking Tube (USA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>