THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS Page 14

Ellis M. Potter, New York, was granted in 1899, a United States patent on an improved direct-flame gas roaster in which the flame was spread over a large area to avoid scorching and to insure a more thorough and uniform roast. In the Tupholme machine, the gas flame entered at one end, and the smoke and flame went out through a stack on top. In the Potter machine, the stack was put on the end opposite the gas intake, with a fan to pull the flame all the way through.

Sirocco Machine (French)

The Burns direct-flame gas roaster, with patented swing-gate head for feeding and discharging, was introduced to the trade in 1900. The Burns gas sample-roaster followed.

In 1901, Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., introduced to the trade one of the earliest indirect gas roasting machines.

In 1901, also, T.C. Morewood, of Brentford, England, was granted an English patent on a gas roaster fitted with a sliding burner and a removable sampling tube. This machine is now being made by the Grocers Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.

In the same year, 1901, F.T. Holmes, formerly with the Potter-Parlin Co., joined the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., which then began to build the Monitor direct-flame gas coffee roaster. Mr. Holmes still further improved the Tupholme idea by putting gas burners in both ends of the roasting cylinder, with the pipes bent down so as to cause the gas flame to go first to the bottom and then up to the stack on top. This improvement was never patented.

The Henneman direct-flame gas roaster was introduced to the United States trade in 1905, by C.A. Cross & Co., wholesale grocers, of Fitchburg, Mass. It was marketed here seven years, but was never a great success.

English Roasting and Grinding Equipment
Showing one 168-pound Simplex gas roaster, with a Rapid disk grinding machine having a capacity of 300 to 400 pounds per hour

In 1906, F.T. Holmes was granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster which he assigned to the Huntley Manufacturing Co.

J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek, Mich., was granted a United States patent in 1908, on a corrugated cylinder improvement for a gas and coal roaster designed for retail stores. The A.J. Deer Co., Hornell, N.Y., acquired this machine in 1909, and began to market it as the Royal coffee roaster. An improvement patented in 1915 by J.C. Prims was assigned to the A.J. Deer Co.

In 1915, and again in 1919, Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, patented their Jubilee roaster, an inner-heated machine in which the gas is burned inside a revolving cylinder in a combustion chamber protected from direct coffee contact. The heat is deflected downward and then passes upward through the coffee.

In 1919, William Fullard (d. 1921), of Philadelphia, was granted a United States patent on a "heated fresh air system" roaster, in which the fresh air is forced by an electric fan through a pipe to a set of coils over gas, coal, or oil flame. At the top of the coils is a manifold, the hot air being forced through small holes to circulate in and around a regulation perforated roasting cylinder; the vapors and spent air are then drawn into an overhead exhaust pipe that connects with a pipe provided with a fresh-air intake, the idea being to return them to the roasting cylinder after being mixed with fresh air and heated in the coils as before. This patent has not been successfully marketed at the time of writing. The purpose is to roast by heated air not mixed with any furnace gases. Whether this can be done with sufficient fuel economy, and whether coffee thus roasted would have any greater value, are questions that are raised by the coffee experts.