Who invented tea bags?

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), in China, paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea. The first Western tea bags were hand-sewn fabric bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant,  Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. The tea in loose form was intended to be removed from the sample bags, but the customers found it easier to brew the tea in cups still enclosed in the bags. These days tea bags are usually made of paper fibre. The heat-sealed  paper fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson, one of the founders of Technical Papers Corporation of Boston. The rectangular tea bag was not invented until 1944. Prior to this, tea bags resembled small sacks. 

Who invented drinking cup?

As the drinking cup existed before the recorded history, hence the original inventor of the drinking cup is not known. The drinking cup would have been a  improvement over drinking liquids with cupped hands. Different types and examples of drinking cups have been found dating in very early history. Pre-historic cups could be made from a variety of materials like shells, animal horns, carved rocks, hollowed out gourds and even skulls. More modern cups were made out of various types of wood, paper, glass and different types stones available in various places.

Why does the print disappear on ATM receipts?

ATM, vending machines receipts, bus ticket, use thermal printing. . It is based on the principle of thermochromism, a process of change in colour with heating.  It works by creating impressions using print-heads over a special kind of paper roll coated with organic dyes, waxes. The paper used is a special thermal paper that is impregnated with mixture of a dye, a matrix such as a fluoran leuco dye and an octadecylphosphonic acid. When the print-head made of regular array of minuscule heating elements receives the signal for printing, it raises the temperature to the melting point of the organic coating to cause print impression on the paper through the process of thermochromism. Usually black-colour print-outs are taken but  red print-outs can also be taken by controlling the temperature of print heads. However, when the thermochromic paper is exposed to heat or unattended in person’s pockets, it darkens the paper, hence fade the original printing marks on it.