[3] After college, Stone began a theological course, but abandoned it to go to Washington, D.C. where he was employed as a newspaper correspondent for several years.

[2] Stone began his career as an inventor by creating a machine to make paper cigarette holders.

[2] Prior to Stone's invention, people used natural rye grass straws, which imparted an undesirable grassy flavor in beverages.

[6] To combat the problem, Stone made the first drinking straw prototypes by spiraling a strip of paper around a pencil and gluing it at the ends.

Stone's straws were 8 ½ inches long[8] and had a diameter just wide enough to prevent things like fruit pips from getting lodged in the tube.