The Unnatural History of the Dixie Cup

Their story starts with a Boston inventor named Lawrence Luellen, who crafted a two-piece cup made out of a blank of paper. He joined the American Water Supply Company, the brainchild of a Kansas-born Harvard dropout named Hugh Moore. The two began dispensing individual servings of water for a penny—one cent for a five-ounce cup from a tall, clumsy porcelain water cooler. - Continue reading at Smithsonian.com.

Illustration: Lawrence W. Luellen, 1912. Drinking Cup. US Patent 1032557.