All About Coffee

1831--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to one cent a pound.

1832--A United States patent is granted to Edmund Parker and Herman M. White, Meriden, Conn., on a new household coffee and spice mill. (Chas. Parker Co. business founded same year.)

1832--Government coffee cultivation by forced labor is introduced into Java.

1832--Coffee is placed on the free list in the United States.

1832-33--United States patents are granted to Ammi Clark, Berlin, Conn., on improved coffee and spice mills for household use.

1833--Amos Ransom, Hartford, Conn., is granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.

1833-34--A complete English coffee-roasting-and-grinding plant is installed in New York by James Wild.

1834--John Chester Lyman is granted a patent in England on a coffee huller employing circular wooden disks with wire teeth.

1835--Thomas Ditson, Boston, is granted a United States patent on a coffee huller. Ten others follow.

1835--The first private coffee estates are started in Java and Sumatra.

1836--The first French coffee-roaster patent is issued to François Réné Lacoux, Paris, on a combination coffee roaster and grinder made of porcelain.

1837--The first French coffee substitute is patented by François Burlet, Lyons.

1839--James Vardy and Moritz Platow are granted an English patent on a form of urn percolator employing the vacuum process of coffee making, the upper vessel being made of glass.

1840--Central America begins shipping coffee to the United States.

1840[L]--Robert Napier, of the Clyde engineering firm of Robert Napier & Sons, invents the Napierian vacuum coffee machine to make coffee by distillation and filtration, but the idea is never patented. (See 1870.)

1840--Abel Stillman, Poland, N.Y., is granted a United States patent on a family coffee roaster having a mica window to enable the operator to observe the coffee while roasting.

1840--The English begin to cultivate coffee in India.

1840--Wm. McKinnon & Co.. Aberdeen, Scotland, begin the manufacture of plantation machinery. (Established 1798.)

1842--The first French patent on a glass coffee-making device is granted to Mme. Vassieux of Lyons.

1843--Ed. Loysel de Santais, Paris, is granted a patent on an improved coffee-making device, the principle of which is later incorporated in a hydrostatic percolator making 2,000 cups an hour.

1846--James W. Carter, Boston, is granted a United States patent on the Carter "pull-out" coffee roaster.

1847--J.R. Remington, Baltimore, is granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster employing a wheel of buckets to move the green coffee beans singly through a charcoal-heated trough in which they are roasted while passing over the rotating wheel.

1847-48--William Dakin and Elizabeth Dakin are granted patents in England for a roasting cylinder lined with gold, silver, platinum, or alloy, and traversing carriage on a railway to move the roaster in and out of the heating chamber.

1848--Thomas John Knowlys is granted a patent in England on a perforated roasting cylinder coated with enamel.

1848--Luke Herbert is granted the first English patent on a coffee-grinding machine.

1849--Apoleoni Preterre, Havre, is granted a patent in England on a coffee roaster mounted on a weighing apparatus to indicate loss of weight in roasting, and automatically to stop the roasting process.

1849--Thomas R. Wood of Cincinnati is granted a United States patent on Wood's improved spherical coffee roaster for use on kitchen stoves.

1850--John Gordon & Co. begin the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery in London.

1850[L]--The cultivation of coffee is introduced into Guatemala.

1850[L]--John Walker introduces his cylinder pulper for coffee plantations.

1852--Edward Gee secures a patent in England for an improved combination of apparatus for roasting coffee; having a perforated cylinder fitted with inclined flanges for turning the beans while roasting.

1852--Robert Bowman Tennent is granted a patent in England on a two-cylinder machine for pulping coffee. Others follow.

1852--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Salvador from Cuba.

1852--Tavernier is granted a French patent on a coffee tablet.

1853--Lacassagne and Latchoud are granted a French patent on liquid and solid extracts of coffee.

1855--C.W. Van Vliet, Fishkill Landing, N.Y., is granted a patent on a household coffee mill employing upper breaking, and lower grinding, cones. Assigned to Charles Parker, Meriden, Conn.

1856--Waite and Sener's Old Dominion pot is patented in the United States.

1857--The Newell patents on coffee-cleaning machinery are issued in America. Sixteen patents follow.

1857--George L. Squier, Buffalo, N.Y., begins the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.

1859--John Gordon, London, is granted an English patent on a coffee pulper.

1860[L]--Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java coffee, the pioneer ground-coffee package, is put on the New York market by Lewis A. Osborn.

1860--Marcus Mason, an American mechanical engineer in San José, Costa Rica, invents the Mason pulper and cleaner.

1860--John Walker is granted a patent in England on a disk pulper for pulping Arabian coffee.

1860--Alexius Van Gulpen begins the manufacture of a green-coffee-grading machine at Emmerich, Germany.

1861--An import duty of four cents a pound on coffee is imposed by the United States as a war-revenue measure.

1862--The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased to five cents a pound.

1862--The first paper-bag factory in the United States, making bags for loose coffee, begins operation in Brooklyn.

1862--E.J. Hyde, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent on a combined coffee roaster and stove, fitted with a crane on which the roasting cylinder is revolved and swung out horizontally from the stove.

1864--Jabez Burns, New York, is granted a United States patent on the Burns coffee roaster, the first machine that did not have to be moved away from the fire for discharging the roasted coffee--marking a distinct advance in the manufacture of coffee-roasting apparatus.

1864--James Henry Thompson. Hoboken, and John Lidgerwood, Morristown, N.J., are granted an English patent on a coffee-hulling machine.

1865--John Arbuckle introduces to the trade at Pittsburgh roasted coffee in individual packages, the forerunner of the Ariosa package.

1866--William Van Vleek Lidgerwood, American chargé d'affaires, Rio de Janeiro, is granted an English patent on a coffee-hulling-and-cleaning machine.

1867--Jabez Burns is granted United States patents on a coffee cooler, a coffee mixer, and a grinding mill, or granulator.

1868--Thomas Page, New York, begins the manufacture of a pull-out coffee roaster similar to the Carter machine.

1868--Alexius Van Gulpen, in partnership with J.H. Lensing and Theodore von Gimborn, begins the manufacture of coffee-roasting machines at Emmerich, Germany.

1868--E.B. Manning, Middletown, Conn., patents his tea-and-coffee pot in the United States.

1868--John Arbuckle is granted a United States patent for a roasted-coffee coating consisting of Irish moss, isinglass, gelatin, sugar, and eggs.

1869--Élie Moneuse and L. Duparquet, New York, are granted three United States patents on a coffee pot, or urn, formed of sheet copper and lined with pure sheet block tin.

1869--B.G. Arnold, New York, engineers the first large green-coffee speculation; his success as an operator winning for him the title of King of the Coffee Trade.

1869--Henry E. Smyser, assignor to the Weikel & Smith Spice Co., Philadelphia, is granted his first United States patent on a spice box used also for coffee.

1869--Licenses to sell coffee in London are abolished.

1869--The coffee-leaf disease is first noticed in Ceylon.

1870--John Gulick Baker, Philadelphia, one of the founders of the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, is granted a patent on a coffee grinder introduced to the trade by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. as its Champion No. 1 mill.

1870--Delephine, Sr., Marourme, is granted a French patent on a tubular coffee roaster that turns over the flame.

1870--Alexius Van Gulpen, Emmerich, Germany, brings out a globular coffee roaster having perforations and an exhauster.

1870--Thos. Smith & Son, Glasgow, Scotland, (Elkington & Co., successors), begin the manufacture of the Napierian vacuum coffee-making machines for brewing coffee by distillation.

1870--First United States trade-mark for essence of coffee is registered by Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio.

1870--The first coffee-valorization enterprise in Brazil results in failure.

1871--J.W. Gillies, New York, is granted two patents in the United States for roasting and treating coffee by subjecting it to an intervening cooling operation.

1871--First United States trade-mark for coffee is issued to Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio, for Buckeye, first used 1870.

1871--G.W. Hungerford is granted United States patents on coffee-cleaning-and-polishing machines.

1871--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to three cents a pound.

1872--Jabez Burns, New York, is granted a United States patent on an improved coffee-granulating mill. Another in 1874.

1872--J. Guardiola, Chocola, Guatemala, is granted his first United States patents on a coffee pulper and a coffee drier.

1872--The import duty on coffee in the United States is repealed.

1872--Robert Hewitt, Jr., New York, publishes the first American work on coffee, Coffee: Its History, Cultivation, and Uses.

1873--J.G. Baker, Philadelphia, assignor of the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, is granted a United States patent on a grinding mill later known to the trade as Enterprise Champion Globe No. 0.

1873--Marcus Mason begins the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery in the United States.

1873--Ariosa, first successful national brand of package coffee is put on the United States market by John Arbuckle of Pittsburgh. (Registered 1900.)

1873--H.C. Lockwood, Baltimore, is granted a United States patent on a coffee package made of paper and lined with tin-foil, with false bottom and top.

1873--The first international syndicate to control coffee is organized in Frankfort, Germany, by the German Trading Company, and operates successfully for eight years.

1873--The Jay Cooke stock-market panic causes the price of Rios in the New York market to drop from twenty-four cents to fifteen cents in one day.

1873--E. Dugdale, Griffin, Ga., is granted two United States patents on coffee substitutes.

1873--The first "coffee palace," the Edinburgh Castle, designed to replace public-houses for workingmen, is opened in London.

1874--John Arbuckle is granted a United States patent on a coffee-cleaner-and-grader.

1875--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Guatemala.

1875-76-78--Turner Strowbridge, of New Brighton, Pa., is granted three United States patents on a box coffee mill first made by Logan & Strowbridge.

1876--John Manning brings out his valve-type percolator in the United States.

1876-78--Henry B. Stevens, Buffalo, assignor to George L. Squier, Buffalo, is granted important United States patents on coffee-cleaning-and-grading machines.

1877--The first German patent on a commercial coffee roaster is issued in Berlin to G. Tuberman's Son.

1877--A French patent is granted Marchand and Hignette, Paris, on a sphere or ball coffee roaster.

1877--The first French patent on a gas coffee roaster is issued to Roure of Marseilles.

1878--Coffee cultivation is introduced into British Central Africa.

1878--The Spice Mill, the first paper in America devoted to the coffee and spice trades, is founded by Jabez Burns of New York.

1878--A United States patent is issued to Rudolphus L. Webb, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark of New Britain, Conn., on an improved box coffee grinder for home use.

1878--Chase & Sanborn, the Boston coffee roasters, are the first to pack and ship roasted coffee in sealed containers.

1878--John C. Dell, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent on a coffee mill for store use.

1879--H. Faulder, Stockport, Lancaster, Eng., is granted an English patent on the first English gas coffee roaster, now made by the Grocers Engineering & Whitmee, Ltd.

1879--A new gas coffee roaster is invented in England by Fleury & Barker.

1879--C.F. Hargreaves, Rio de Janeiro, is granted an English patent on machinery for hulling, polishing, and separating coffee.

1879--Charles Halstead, New York, is the first to bring out a metal coffee pot with a china interior.

1879-80--Orson W. Stowe, of the Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., Southington, Conn., is granted United States patents on an improved coffee and spice mill.

1880--Great failures in the American coffee trade as a result of syndicate planting and buying of coffees in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America.

1880--Coffee pots with tops, having muslin bottoms for clarifying and straining, are first made by Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse Co. in the United States.

1880--Peter Pearson, Manchester, Eng., is granted a patent in England on a coffee roaster wherein gas is substituted for coke as fuel.

1880--Henry E. Smyser, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent on a package-making-and-filling machine, forerunner of the weighing-and-packing machine, the control of which by John Arbuckle led to the coffee-sugar war with the Havemeyers.

1880--Fancy paper bags for coffee are first used in Germany.

1880-81--G.W. and G.S. Hungerford are granted United States patents on machines for cleaning, scouring, and polishing coffee.

1880-81--The first big coffee-trade combination in North America, known as the "trinity" (O.G. Kimball, B.G. Arnold and Bowie Dash, all of New York), has a sensational collapse, its failure being the result of syndicate planting and buying of coffees in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America.

1881--Steele & Price, Chicago, are the first to introduce all-paper cans (made of strawboard) for coffee.

1881--C.S. Phillips, Brooklyn, is granted three patents in the United States for aging and maturing coffee.

1881--The Emmericher Machinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei at Emmerich, Germany, begins the manufacture of a closed globular roaster with a gas-heater attachment.

1881--Jabez Burns is granted a United States patent on an improved construction of his roaster, comprising a turn-over front head, serving for both feeding and discharging.

1881--The Morgan brothers, Edgar H. and Charles, begin the manufacture of household coffee mills, subsequently acquired (1885) by the Arcade Manufacturing Co., Freeport, Ill.

1881--Francis B. Thurber, New York, publishes the second important American work on coffee, Coffee from Plantation to Cup.

1881--Harvey Ricker, Brooklyn, introduces to the trade a "minute" coffee pot and urn, known as the Boss, name subsequently changed to Minute, and later improved and patented (1901) as the Half Minute coffee pot--a filtration device employing a cotton sack with a thick bottom.

1881--New York Coffee Exchange is incorporated.

1882--Chris. Abele, New York, is granted a atent in the United States on an improvement on a coffee roaster, similar to the original Burns machine (on which the 1864 patent had expired) known as the Knickerbocker.

1882--The Hungerfords, father and son, bring out a coffee roaster, similar to the first Burns machine, in competition with Chris. Abele.

1882--A German patent is granted to Emil Newstadt, Berlin, on one of the earliest coffee-extract-making machines.

1882--The first French coffee exchange, or terminal market, is opened at Havre.

1882--New York Coffee Exchange begins business.

1883--The Burns Improved Sample Coffee Roaster is patented in the United States by Jabez Burns.

1884--The Star coffee pot, later known as the Marion Harland, is introduced to the trade.

1884--The Chicago Liquid Sack Co. introduces the first combination paper and tin-end can for coffee in the United States.

1885--F.A. Cauchois introduces into the United States market an improved porcelain-lined coffee urn.

1885--Property of New York Coffee Exchange is transferred to the Coffee Exchange, City of New York, incorporated by special charter.

1880--Walker, Sons & Co., Ltd., begin experiments in Ceylon with a Liberian disk coffee pulper; fully perfected in 1898.

1886-88--The "great coffee boom" forces the price of Rio 7's from seven and a half to twenty-two and a quarter cents, the subsequent panic reducing the price to nine cents. Total sales on the New York Coffee Exchange.

1887-88, amount to 47,868,750 bags; and prices advance 1,485 points during 1886-87.

1887--Beeston Tupholme, London, is granted a patent in England on a direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1887--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Tonkin, Indo-China.

1887--Coffee exchanges are opened in Amsterdam and Hamburg.

1888--Evaristo Conrado Engelberg, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, is granted a United States patent on a coffee-hulling machine (invented in 1885); and the same year, the Engelberg Huller Co., Syracuse, N.Y., is organized for the purpose of manufacturing and selling Engelberg machines.

1888--Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted a patent in Spain on a direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1888--A French patent is granted to Postulart on a gas roaster.

1889--David Fraser, who came to the United States in 1886 from Glasgow, Scotland, establishes the Hungerford Co., succeeding to the business of the Hungerfords.

1889--The Arcade Manufacturing Co., Freeport, Ill., brings out the first "pound" coffee mill.

1889--Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted patents in Belgium, France, and England, on his direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1889--C.A. Otto is granted a German patent on a spiral-coil gas coffee machine to roast coffee in three and a half minutes.

1890--A. Mottant, Bar-le-Duc, France, begins the manufacture of coffee-roasting machines.

1890[L]--Coffee exchanges are opened in Antwerp, London, and Rotterdam.

1890--Sigmund Kraut begins the manufacture of fancy grease-proof paper-lined coffee bags in Berlin.

1891--The New England Automatic Weighing Machine Co., Boston, begins the manufacture of machines to weigh coffee into cartons and other packages.

1891--R.F.E. O'Krassa; Antigua, Guatemala, is granted an important English patent on a machine for pulping coffee.

1891--John List, Black Heath, Kent, Eng., is granted an English patent on a steam coffee urn described as an improvement on the Napierian system.

1892--T. von Gimborn, Emmerich, Germany, is granted an English patent on a coffee roaster employing a naked gas flame in a rotary cylinder.

1892--The Fried. Krupp A.G. Grusonwerk, Magdeburg-Buckau, Germany, begins the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.

1893--Cirilo Mingo, New Orleans, is granted a United States patent on a process for maturing, or aging, green coffee beans by moistening the bags.

1893--The first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America (Tupholme's English machine) is installed by F.T. Holmes at the plant of the Potter-Parlin Co., New York, which places similar machines on daily rental basis throughout the United States, limiting leases to one firm in a city, obtaining exclusive American rights from the Waygood, Tupholme Co., now the Grocers Engineering & Whitmee, Ltd., London.

1893--Karel F. Hennemann, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted a United States patent on his direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1894--The first automatic weighing machine to weigh goods in cartons is installed in the plant of Chase & Sanborn, Boston.

1894--Joseph M. Walsh, Philadelphia, publishes his Coffee; Its History, Classification and Description.

1895--Gerritt C. Otten and Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, are granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.

1895--Adolph Kraut introduces German-made double (grease-proof lined) paper bags for coffee in America.

1895--Marcus Mason, assignor to Marcus Mason & Co., New York, is granted United States patents on machines for pulping and polishing coffee.

1895--Thomas M. Royal, Philadelphia, is the first to manufacture in the United States a fancy duplex-lined paper bag.

1895--Édelestan Jardin publishes in Paris a work on coffee, entitled Le Caféier et le Café.

1895--The Electric Scale Co., Quincy, Mass., begins the manufacture of pneumatic weighing machines; business continued by the Pneumatic Scale Corp., Ltd., Norfolk Downs, Mass.

1896--Natural gas is first used in the United States as fuel for roasting, being introduced under coal roasting cylinders in Pennsylvania and Indiana by improvised gas-burners.

1896-1897--Beeston Tupholme is granted United States patents on his direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1897--Joseph Lambert of Vermont begins 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.

1897--A special gas burner (made the basis of application for patent) is first attached to a regular Burns roaster.

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

1897--Carl H. Duehring, Hoboken, N.J., assignor to D.B. Fraser, New York, is granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.

1898--The Hobart Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio, puts on the market one of the first coffee grinders connected with an electric motor and driven by a belt-and-pulley attachment.