03 March 2017

Inventions in Everything: Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, a brand new invention promises to completely change the experience of how we, as Americans, enjoy our Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds: the Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal!

Mere words cannot do justice to this kind of innovation, called simply "the STRAW", so let's turn to the promotional YouTube video that now accompanies all great technological achievements instead of just mere press releases (HT: Core77)....

Yes, it's real, and it's spectacular! Unfortunately, we couldn't find any U.S. patents assigned to McDonalds for its latest invention, and in fact, the closest we could find was U.S. Patent Number 9,627.095, which was issued to Solomon Kim on 27 December 2016, which describes how a long, flexible suction tube with additional holes at strategic locations along its length, might be deployed for the purpose of more completely extracting a fluid from the bottom of a pump-top container when the fluid level is very low.

But the patent for "the STRAW" would be a patent that we'd like to see!

Update 23 October 2022: The original promotional video is no longer accessible. We've replaced it with Engadget's review of the STRAW.

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