The flexible drinking straw, on the tip of everyone’s tongue worldwide

The flexible drinking straw, invented by Horst Veith when he was young, is actually on the tip of everyone’s tongue worldwide. If there would be a picture and the name of the inventor on each drinking straw, then Horst Veith would certainly be one of the best known people in the world. The drinking straw with the bend gave a multinational drilling company the insight that by means of using joints they could carry out vertical drillings, proceed to horizontal and then back again to vertical. So here the bend in the drinking straw has contributed towards a great technical solution.

Mister Veith, what gave you the idea of a flexible drinking straw?

As with many inventions, an observation was the cause here, too.  A disabled person lying in bed tried to drink out of a cup, but failed miserably.So I perceived that a drinking straw has to adapt to the requirements. Further confirmation for the need of a flexible drinking straw resulted from a further observation in a bar, where a couple tried to drink out of one glass with one rigid straw. The result was bizarre and painful.

How did you put this into action?

A solution had to be found to give the drinking straw a joint, with up to 90 degrees of mobility.

How did you implement your insight to the design and development?

The quality of plastic in those days was nowhere near as good as today, but it was possible to put cross grooves into the plastic drinking straw by wrapping a very thin wire around it about one third from one end and heating it with an electric current from a little transformer. This method produced grooves which gave the straw a certain amount of flexibility.

And how was serial maturity attained?

To be quite honest, I was not aware of the full scale of importance of my invention, but others were. Following some publications, numerous producers who picked up on the idea and produced huge quantities of flexible drinking straws, appeared. Unfortunately the success resulted in many so-called copycat offenders taking up production regardless of trade mark rights. A lot of money was spent counteracting those pirates, and unfortunately it did not always turn out well.

What do you feel today when you see your flexible straw in countries all over the world?

You get used to it and since neither my name nor a picture is put on the straws it really is an anonymous product. I am the only one who knows that it was my idea and which difficulties were involved when this admittedly brilliant invention ‘conquered the world’.

Mister Veith, thank you for the conversation.

The interview was led by Monika Wittmann.

The next issues will bring you more about the inventions of the German inventor Horst Veith in our info series “little ideas to make life easier”.

• Moonboots
• System to detect house dust mites
• Bottle opener with gas cartridge

For more information     www.potema.com     www.horstveith.com     E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it