THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS 16

In 1882, Chris Abele, of New York, patented an improvement on the old-style Burns roaster, with openings cut in the front plate. It was known as the Knickerbocker. As already noted, the machine was a competitor of the Hungerford machine patented the same year.

In 1882, a German patent was granted to Emil Newstadt, of Berlin, on one of the earliest coffee-extract machines.

In 1883, Jabez Burns was granted a United States patent on his improved sample-coffee roaster.

In 1884, the Star coffee pot, later known as the Marion Harland, was introduced to the trade. It employed a wire-gauze drip device, called a "filter," which was fitted to a metal pot. It was extensively advertised and attained considerable popularity. The same year, Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, brought out an improved coffee pot for family trade. Later, he produced his Mo-Kof-Fee pot and an individual porcelain drip pot for testing-table use.

In 1887–88, the Etruscan coffee pot was invented and put on the market by the Etruscan Coffee Pot Co., of Philadelphia. It employed a muslin cylinder with metal ends and a mechanism for combining "agitation, distillation and infusion." It was not unlike the Dakin device of 1848, previously mentioned.

In 1890, A. Mottant, Bar-le-Duc, France, began to manufacture a line of coffee-roasting machinery which included vertical ball-and-cylinder machines, using wood, coal, coke, or gas for fuel. His best known makes are Magic and Sirocco

Before 1895, the commercial roaster was little used in France. Since then, the industry has developed, but without displacing the smaller roaster for family use. Ball roasters are popular with shop-keepers, especially the variety manufactured by the Établissements Lauzaune at Paris, and known as Aromatic, being equipped with electric motors. This firm builds also a larger machine known as Moderne.

Other makes of roasters that have attained prominence in France are the Lambert, equipped with a steam condenser; Van den Brouck's, having the roasting cylinder lined with wire gauze; and Resson's machine for wholesale plants.

The French led off with glass-cylinder roasters for home use in the early seventies. They are still popular. One of the developments of the last decade was known as the Bijou, and was operated by clock work. A similar automatic machine, made of glass, was manufactured and sold in New York in 1908 under the name of the Home roaster. As late as 1914, an American inventor produced a home roaster for use in a stove hole. This device had a stirrer in the cover to be rotated by hand. A similar device was sold in 1917 under the name Savo. Home roasting, however, has become a lost art in America.

In 1897, Joseph Lambert, of Vermont, began the manufacture and sale in Battle Creek, Mich., of the Lambert self-contained coffee roaster without the brick setting then required for coffee-roasting machines. In 1900, he was joined by A.P. Grohens. In 1901, the Lambert Food and Machinery Co. was organized. In 1904, the company was reorganized. Since then, many improvements have been made under Mr. Grohens' direction. The Lambert gas roaster, one of the first machines employing gas as fuel for indirect roasting, dates back to 1901, as previously mentioned. The Economic roaster is Mr. Grohens' latest development for coal or coke fuel. It is a compact self-contained equipment operating in connection with a new-type rotary cooler. He has also recently (1922) brought out a gas-fired, electrically operated 600-pound Victory roaster and a fifty-pound miniature coffee-roasting plant designed for retail stores.

In 1897, the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania was the first regularly to employ electric motors for driving commercial coffee mills by means of belt-and-pulley attachments.

In 1898, the Hobart Manufacturing Co., of Troy, Ohio, introduced to the trade another early coffee grinder connected with an electric motor and driven by belt-and-pulley attachment.

In 1900, the first gear-driven electric coffee grinder was put on the market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania.

In 1902, the Coles Manufacturing Co., (Braun Co., successor) and Henry Troemner, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture and sale of gear-driven electric coffee grinders.

In 1905, the A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo, N.Y., (now at Hornell, N.Y.) began to sell its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers on the instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling coffee mills through hardware jobbers.

In 1905, H.L. Johnston was granted a United States patent on a coffee mill. He assigned the patent to the Hobart Manufacturing Co.

In 1900, Charles Lewis was granted a United States patent on an improved reversible filtration coffee pot known as the Kin-Hee. This pot has since been further improved, and the patent rights sold in several foreign countries. It employs a filter cloth in place of the metal or china strainer used in the French drip pot.

In 1901, Landers, Frary & Clark's improved Universal percolator was patented in the United States. This pot has proved to be one of the most popular percolators on the American market. This firm brought out the Universal Cafenoira, a double glass filtration device, in 1916. It is covered by design and structural patents issued in 1916 and 1917.

In 1900, the Burns swing-gate sample-roasting outfit was patented in the United States.

In 1901, Robert Burns, of New York, was granted two United States patents on a coffee roaster and cooler.

In 1901, Freidrich Kuchelmeister, Brux, Austria-Hungary, was granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster having a double-walled drum, the inner being of wire gauze, and the outer of solid iron, designed to prevent scorching of the beans.

In 1902, W.M. Still & Sons, London, were granted an English patent on a steam coffee-making machine employing twelve ounces of coffee to the gallon.

In 1902, T.K. Baker, of Minneapolis, was granted two United States patents on a cloth-filter coffee-making device.

In 1903, A.E. Bronson, Jr., assignor to the Bronson-Walton Company, Cleveland, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a coffee mill.

In 1903, John Arbuckle was granted a United States patent on a coffee-roasting apparatus employing a fan to force the hot fire gases into the roasting cylinder. From this was developed the Jumbo roaster, now used in the Arbuckle plant, which roasts ten thousand pounds an hour.

In 1903, George C. Lester, of New York, was granted a United States patent on an electric coffee roaster, that is, a machine to roast by electric heat. There were two cylinders, the inner being of wire gauze, and the outer of copper and asbestos. Between the two, four electric heaters were placed.

There was demonstrated in Germany, in 1906, an electric coffee roaster employing a number of resistance coils, consisting of strips of Krupp metal two and one-half mm. thick, five mm. broad, and thirteen and one-half mm. long, wound on porcelain tubes, which transmitted the heat to the air within the roasting cylinder. Analysis showed that coffee electrically roasted contained more substances soluble in water than that roasted by coke, as well as considerably more material soluble in ether. This machine was invented by Captain Carl Moegling about 1900.

Another electric-fuel-machine patent was granted in the United States to Robert H. Talbutt, of Baltimore, in 1911. This machine had the electric heater in the center of the roasting cylinder. An electrically heated machine called the Ben Franklin was demonstrated in New York in 1918.

In 1919, Everett T. Shortt, Dallas, Tex., was granted a United States patent on an electrical roaster.

Up to the present writing, no great progress has been made in the United States with the roasting of coffee by electric heat.

The Phoenix Electrical Heating Co. manufactured, and the Uno Company, Ltd., of London, marketed an electrically heated roaster as far back as 1909. The machine was not altogether satisfactory, even to the makers; and the Uno Company is now (1922) experimenting with a new type of electric roaster which it expects will remedy the defects of the early machine. The 1909 roaster was made of two concentric cylinders revolving around a set of fixed heating elements, consisting of a series of spiral wires held in position on fireproof clay insulators, these wires being assembled, insulated, and brought out through the fixed center to a terminal, or a set of terminals, at one end. In this way, no contact brushes or rings were needed. The machine had a sampling device at one end which threw out a few berries each time it was operated. It was not possible to return these sample berries. Such an arrangement appeared necessary, however, unless one was prepared to have the heating element on the outside of the machine and to pick up the current by means of rings or brushes. When the operator became accustomed to the coffee he was roasting, this was not a matter of great moment, because in England, at least, the average coffee roaster does not require a testing sample until he is about ready to turn out and to cool the roast.

English Electric-Fuel Roaster

Ben Franklin Electric Coffee Roaster

The Uno machine had a capacity of seven pounds, and the time occupied in roasting was from eight to ten minutes, depending on whether the roaster had been freshly switched on or had been running for a few minutes. The wattage was 5,520. The consumption per hundred-weight was under thirteen units. The makers gave, as the most economical pressure on which to work, 220 to 240 volts. The machine was operated for eighteen months in the show window of a London retail grocer.

In 1921, a United States patent was granted to Mark T. Seymour, Stowe, N.Y., on an electric coffee and peanut roaster, which has the heating element embedded in a cement-lined cylinder that contains a roasting cage.

In 1921, Fred J. Kuhlemeir and Ralph J. Quelle, of Burlington, Ia., were granted a United States patent on a small household coffee roaster electrically equipped, and roasting by electric heat.