New Haven Register:
A Sacramento inventor is marketing a product that he says is the first tool ever for effectively stopping a case of the hiccups.
Chuck Ray dubbed his invention “The Hiccup Stick,†which he developed two years ago. Sitting in his home office, Ray had a pen in his mouth and a case of the hiccups.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, but I grabbed a glass of water and drank it with the pen still in my mouth,†he said.
It didn’t stop his hiccups, he said, but it did make a noticeable improvement.
Ray began working with a friend with access to a 3-D printer, searching for something that would work better than the pen. Using himself as a test subject, he hit upon the Hiccup Stick. He soon quit his job and now works full time as CEO of Hicural, the company he created to market his invention. It’s a two-man operation; Ray works with Chief Operating Officer Marc Cheiken.