Throw one back in honor of Robert Leo Hulseman, the inventor of America's most iconic cup. jfmdesign/iStock If you've ever cleaned up after a kegger or done drink duty at an office party, you've seen them—the red Solo cups that are Americans' receptacle of choice for beverages both alcoholic and non. Today, the iconic cup's inventor, Robert Leo Hulseman, died at age 84, shining a spotlight on the red workhorses of the disposable plastic world. But how did they come into being? The story of the Solo cup begins with the rise of disposable cups in the early 20th century. As Smithsonian.com's Peter Smith explains, disposable cups came into vogue during a scourge of communicable disease spread by the practice of sharing water dippers and communal cups in public places. When the public realized that disposable cups weren't germ-ridden disease vectors, they flocked to ear...
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