THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS Page 11

German Coffee Machinery

The Germans first began to show an active interest in coffee machinery in 1860. In that year, Alexius Van Gulpen, of Emmerich, produced a green-coffee grader; and later (1868), in partnership with J.H. Lensing and Theodore von Gimborn, began the manufacture of coffee-roasting machines. From this start there developed in Emmerich quite an industry in coffee-machinery building. In 1870, Alexius Van Gulpen introduced to the German trade a globular coffee roaster employing wood and coke as fuel and having perforations and an exhauster. Van Gulpen and von Gimborn are the two names most often met with in the development of German coffee-roasting machinery.

The first recorded German patent on a coffee roaster was issued to G. Tubermann's Son in 1877, for "a coffee burner with vertically adjusted stirring works." German patents were issued in 1878 to R. Muhlberg, of Taucha, for coffee roasters with movable partitions and "screw-shaped declining walls." Six roaster patents were issued to other inventors in 1878–79.

Peter Pearson, of Manchester, took out a German patent on a coffee-roasting apparatus in 1880. Fleury & Barker, of London, were granted a coffee-roaster patent in Germany in 1881.

After 1870, Van Gulpen devoted himself to the cylinder type of roaster, on which he obtained several patents. The partnership between Messrs. Van Gulpen, Lensing and von Gimborn was dissolved in 1906. They were succeeded by the Emmericher Maschinenfabrik und Eissengiesserei, and Van Gulpen & Co. Van Gulpen died in 1920. Among his inventions were a circular air fan to supply fresh air to the beans while roasting; a fire-dampening device; roasting and cooling exhausters; and a "withdrawable" mixer remaining inside the cylinder during the roasting process, but designed to be withdrawn at the end, discharging the contents with a jerk into a circular cooler. These improvements are featured in Van Gulpen & Co.'s latest Meteor machine. They make also the Typhoon and Comet machines, and a line of globular roasters.

A dozen coffee-roaster patents were issued in Germany in 1880–82. Among them was one to the Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry, Van Gulpen, Lensing & von Gimborn, Emmerich, in 1882.

German Gas and Coal Roasting Machines
Left, Perfekt gas roaster—Right, Probat coal roaster

Numerous coffee-cooling, coffee-grinding, and coffee-making devices were patented in Germany from 1877 to 1885; among them Newstadt's coffee-extract machine in 1882, safety attachments, rapid filters, Vienna coffee makers, etc. The first Vienna coffee maker seems to have been patented in Germany in 1879.

The Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry acquired certain Danish and Austrian coffee-roaster patents in 1881, and in 1892 it was granted a German patent on a ball roaster. In the eighties this concern began the manufacture of a closed ball, or globular, roaster with gas-heater attachment. It acquired, in 1889, the rights for Germany to manufacture gas roasters under the Dutch Henneman patents of 1888. In 1892, Theodore von Gimborn was granted French and English patents on a coffee roaster employing a naked gas flame in a rotary cylinder. In 1897, the Emmericher concern was granted a German patent on an automatic circular tipping cooler with power drive. Today, this factory features the Probat and Perfekt roasters, but manufactures a general line of cylinder and ball machines for coal, coke, and gas.

Among others engaged in the manufacture of coffee machines in Germany are G. W. Barth, Ludwigsburg, and Ferd. Gothot, Mulheim on Rhur. The latter manufactures a coke or gas heated quick-roaster known as the Ideal-Rapid, and a smaller hand-power machine, of the same type, called Favour.

Other German Coffee Roasters
Left, globular machine—Right, Meteor quick-roasting outfit