How did the drinking straw get its name?

The original drinking straws were hollow grass stems made of... straw. On this date in 1888, Marvin C. Stone, who was already manufacturing paper cigarette holders, patented a new process for making drinking straws. He wound strips of paraffin-coated paper around a pencil and glued them together. Within two years, production of the straws had surpassed that of the cigarette holders. The manufacturing was done by hand until 1906, when Stone's company created a machine to do the job.