Joseph Friedman

Joseph B. Friedman (October 9, 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio – June 21, 1982) was an independent American inventor with a broad range of interests and ideas. Friedman was a first generation American and the fifth of eight children of Jacob David Friedman and Antoinette Grauer Friedman.

By the age of fourteen, had conceptualized his first invention, the lighted pencil, which he deemed the "pencilite," and was attempting to market his idea. Over the course of his inventing career, he would experiment with ideas ranging from writing implements to engine improvements, and household products to sound and optic experiments. He was issued nine U.S. patents and held patents in Great Britain, Australia and Canada. His first patent was issued for improvements to the fountain pen on April 18, 1922. This was also the first invention that he successfully sold, to the Sheaffer Pen Company in the mid-1930s.

In the 1920s, Friedman began his education in real estate and optometry. He would use both of these careers at different points in his life to supplement his income while improving his invention concepts. Although he was working as a realtor in San Francisco, California, the 1930s proved to be his most prolific patenting period, with six of his nine U.S. patents being issued then. One of these patents would prove to be his most successful invention - the flexible drinking straw.

While sitting in his younger brother Albert's fountain parlor, the Varsity Sweet Shop in San Francisco (200 19th Avenue), Friedman observed his young daughter Judith at the counter, struggling to drink out of a straight straw. He took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, he wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating . After removing the screw, the altered paper straw would bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children to better reach their beverages. U.S. patent #2,094,268 was issued for this new invention under the title Drinking Tube, on September 28, 1937. Friedman would later file and be issued two additional U.S. patents and three foreign patents in the 1950s relating to its formation and construction. Friedman attempted to sell his straw patent to several existing straw manufacturers beginning in 1937 without success, so after completing his straw machine, he began to produce the straw himself. Friedman's younger English relative, Michael Fabricant MP, would later write that his great uncle's invention was "arguably the most significant technological achievement of the twentieth century".

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