THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS Page 17

Other Machinery Patents

In 1903, Luigi Giacomini, of Florence, Italy, was granted a United States patent on a process for roasting coffee.

In 1905, A.A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., was granted two United States patents on a coffee mill.

In 1906, Ludwig Schmidt, assignor to the Essmueller Mill Furnishing Co., St. Louis, was granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster. This company and the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., also of St. Louis, were making machines similar to the original Burns model. The Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., in 1910, brought out a self-contained gas roaster called the St. Louis, Jr. In 1913, at a receiver's sale, A.P. Grohens, of the Lambert Machine Co., acquired all the machinery and patent rights of the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Company.

In 1904, J.W. Chapman and G.W. Kooman, assignors to Manning, Bowman & Co., Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee or tea pot. The same year, George E. Savage and G.W. Hope were granted two United States patents on coffee or tea pots, also assigned to Manning, Bowman & Co.

Enterprise Hand Store Mill

In 1904, Sigmund Sternau, J.P. Steppe, and L. Strassberger, assignors to S. Sternau & Co., New York, were granted a United States patent on a percolator. Six others were granted to Charles Nelson, and assigned to S. Sternau & Co., in 1912 and 1913, for a percolator, the manufacture and sale of which were discontinued in 1915.

In 1905, a celebrated case was decided in Kansas City involving litigation between William E. Baker, of Baker & Co., Minneapolis, and the F.A. Duncombe Manufacturing Co., of St. Joseph, Mo., over Mr. Baker's patent rights in a machine to produce steel-cut coffee. The suit was brought in 1903, and Mr. Baker contended that his patent gave him the exclusive right to the "uniformity of granules by means of the sharply dressed mechanism" and by the use of a fan for blowing away the silver skins, produced by his machine; while the defendant said he obtained the same result (steel-cut coffee) by grading the granules through screens or sieves. The defense was that Mr. Baker's process was not a discovery; because, grinding coffee was as old as the world's knowledge, and winnowing the chaff was equally ancient. The lower court dismissed the bill, because the "patents sued upon are devoid of patentable invention"; and the United States Court of Appeals confirmed the decision.

In 1905, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, brought out his Private Estate coffee maker, a clever combination of the French drip and filter processes, employing a thin layer of Japanese paper as a filtering agent. The same year, Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, was granted a United States patent on a percolator employing two cylinders, perforated on the sides, with a sheet of percolator paper placed between them to act as a filtering medium.

In 1906, George Savage and J.W. Chapman, assignors to Manning, Bowman & Co. of Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee percolator.

In 1906, Alonzo A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a coffee percolator.

In 1906, H.D. Kelly, Kansas City, was granted a United States patent on the Kellum Automatic coffee urn, employing a coffee extractor in which ground coffee is continually agitated before percolation by a vacuum process. Sixteen patents followed.

LATEST TYPES OF ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN STORE MILLS

In 1907, Desiderio Pavoni, of Milan, Italy, was granted a patent in Italy for an improvement on the Bezzara system for preparing and serving coffee as a rapid infusion of a single cup, first introduced in 1903–1904. It is known as the Ideale urn, and makes 150 cups per hour. Among other Italian rapid coffee-making machines which, with this one, have attained considerable prominence in Europe and South America, mention should be made of La Victoria Arduino made by Pier Teresio Arduino, of Turin, Italy, introduced in 1909, that makes 1000 cups per hour. It was patented in the United States in 1920. There are, also, L'Italiana Sovereign Filter Machine (1440 cups per hour) made by Bossi, Vernetti & Bartolini, Turin, (subsequently merged with La Victoria Arduino-Societa Anonima); and José Baro's Express, Buenos Aires, making 600 cups an hour.

Types of Italian Rapid Coffee-Making Machines
The Ideale Machine (Center) Makes 150 Cups of Coffee an Hour. The Machine at the Left Makes 1,000 Cups an Hour
A Machine of the Type of the One at the Right will Produce from 1,440 to 1,800 Cups of Coffee an Hour

In 1908, A.E. White, Chicago, was granted a United States patent on a coffee urn. He assigned it to the James Heekin Co., of Cincinnati.

In 1908, I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, introduced his Tricolator to the trade and the consumer. This is an aluminum device to fit any coffee pot, combining French drip and filtration ideas, with Japanese paper as the filtration medium.

In 1908, an improved type of Burns roaster was patented in the United States. The improvement consisted of an open perforated cylinder with flexible back-head and balanced front bearing. The following year, the Burns tilting sample-roaster for gas or electric heating units was patented.

In 1909, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, was granted a United States patent on a coffee urn fitted with a centrifugal pump for repouring.

In 1909, C.F. Blanke, of St. Louis, was granted two United States patents on a china coffee pot with a cloth filter, the sides tightly, and the bottom loosely, woven.

In 1911, Edward Aborn, of New York, was granted a United States patent on his Make-Right coffee-filter device. This was later incorporated with improvements in a Tru-Bru coffee pot, on which he was granted another patent in 1920.

In 1912, John E. King, of Detroit, was granted a United States patent on an improved coffee percolator for restaurants, employing a sheet of filter paper on a ring in a metal basket; the ring to be removed once the filter paper was in position on the perforated bottom plate of the percolator basket.

In 1913, F.F. Wear, Los Angeles, perfected a coffee-making device in which a metal perforated clamp was employed to apply a filter paper to the under-side of an English earthenware adaptation of the French drip pot.

In 1912, William Lawton demonstrated in London a gas coffee roaster of his own invention, by means of which he roasted coffee "in suspension" to a light brown color in three minutes.

Showing How the Italian Rapid Coffee Machine Works
Left, putting coffee in the filter—Center, applying filter to faucet—Right, turning on water and steam to make the drink

Herbert L. Johnston, assignor to the Hobart Electric Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a machine for refining coffee in 1913.

In 1914, the Phylax coffee maker, embodying an improvement on the French drip principle, was introduced to the trade. The process was demonstrated by Benjamin H. Calkin, of Detroit, in 1921, as "an art of brewing coffee."

La Victoria Arduino Mignonne
An electric rapid coffee maker

In 1914, Robert Burns, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, was granted a United States patent on a coffee-granulating mill.

In 1914–15, Herbert Galt, of Chicago, was granted three United States patents on the Gait coffee pot, made of aluminum, and having two parts, a removable cylinder employing the French drip principle, and the containing pot.

In 1915, the Burns Jubilee (inner-heated) gas coffee roaster was patented in the United States and put on the market.

In 1915, the National Coffee Roasters Association Home coffee mill, employing an improved set screw operating on a cog-and ratchet principle, was introduced to the trade.

In 1916, a United States patent was granted to I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, for an infuser improvement on his Tricolator.

In 1916, Saul Blickman, assignor to S. Blickman, New York, was granted a United States patent on an apparatus for making and dispensing coffee.

In 1916, Orville W. Chamberlain, New Orleans, was granted a United States patent on an automatic drip coffee pot.

In 1916, Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., obtained two United States patents on cutting rolls to cut—and not to grind or crush—corn, wheat, or coffee. These were subsequently incorporated in the Ideal steel-cut coffee mill and marketed to the trade by the B.F. Gump Co., Chicago.

In 1917, Richard A. Greene and William G. Burns, assignors to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, were granted patents in the United States on the Burns flexible-arm cooler (for roasted batches) providing full fan-suction to a cooler box at all points in its track travel.

In 1919, Joseph F. Smart, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a percolator.

In 1919, Charles Morgan, assignor to the Arcade Manufacturing Co., Freeport, Ill., was granted a United States patent on an improved grinding mill.

In 1919, Edward F. Schnuck, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, was granted a United States patent on an improvement for a gas coffee roaster. In 1920, he was granted a United States patent on an improved process of twice cutting coffee and removing the chaff after each cutting.

In 1920, Natale de Mattei, of Turin, Italy, was granted a United States patent on a rapid coffee-filtering machine.

In 1920, Frederick H. Muller, of Chicago, was granted a United States patent on "an art of making coffee," and on an improved apparatus for hotels and restaurants, which comprised a series of superposed metal containers, or cartridges, of ground coffee placed in a perforated bucket designed to rest in a coffee urn, the cartridges being lifted out as the boiling water poured on them sinks with the drawing off of the "decoction" at the faucet.

In 1920, Alfredo M. Salazar, of New York, was granted a United States patent on a coffee urn in which the coffee is made at the time of serving by using steam pressure to force the boiling water through ground coffee held in a cloth sack attached to the faucet.

In 1920, William H. Bruning, Evansville, Ind., was granted a United States patent on an improved French drip pot made of aluminum and provided with a vacuum jacket in the dripper section, and a hot-water jacket in the serving portion, to keep the beverage hot.

In 1921, the Manthey-Zorn Laboratories Co., of Cleveland, brought out a rapid coffee-infuser and dispenser employing in the infuser a centrifugal to make an extract in thirty-eight seconds, and designed to deliver a gallon of concentrated liquid, or coffee base, every three minutes. The dispenser automatically combines the coffee base with boiling water in a differential faucet in the proportion desired, usually one of base to four of water. The dispenser serves 600 cups per hour. An additional faucet may be added which will double the capacity.

The Tricolette, a Paper-Filter Device for a Single Cup
Above; In position on cup—Below; opened, showing parts

Among foreign coffee makers applying the French drip principle, the Vienna coffee-making machine, known in the United States as the Bohemian coffee pot, has met with much favor in this country. Elsewhere it is known as the Carlsbad. It is made of china, and the European manufacturer has a patent on the porcelain strainer, or grid, which is provided with slits that are very fine on the inner side but that widen on the outer side to permit careful straining and to facilitate cleaning.

Some of the latest developments in coffee apparatus were shown at the industrial exposition at the National Coffee Roasters Association, held in New York, November 1–3, 1921. Among items of distinction not heretofore included in this work, mention should be made of: an American-French coffee biggin, being a French drip pot made of American porcelain and fitted with a muslin strainer; a glass urn-liner, intended to supplant the porcelain liner; and an electric repouring pump, designed to be attached to any type of coffee urn.

Careful research of the records of the United States patent office discloses that the number of patents relating to coffee apparatus and coffee preparations, issued from 1789 to 1921, is as follows:

It must be borne in mind that there was a number of patents granted on machines that were intended for, and used for, coffee, but that did not mention coffee in the specifications. Many coffee driers were listed as "grain driers," for instance. Also, many excellent devices have been made that were never patented.