All About Coffee

1898--Millard F. Hamsley, Brooklyn, is granted a United States patent on an improved direct-flame gas coffee roaster.

1898--Edwin Norton of New York is granted a United States patent on a vacuum process of canning foods, later applied to coffee. Others follow.

1898--J.D. Olavarria, a distinguished Venezuelan, first advocates a plan for restriction of coffee production, and for regulation of coffee exports from countries suffering from overproduction.

1898--A bear campaign forces Rio 7's down to four and a half cents on the New York Coffee Exchange.

1899--The bubonic-plague boom temporarily halts the downward trend of coffee prices.

1899--The Canister Co., Phillipsburg, N.J., begins the manufacture of square and oblong fiber-bodied tin-end cans for coffee.

1899--Soluble coffee is invented in Chicago by Dr. Sartori Kato, a chemist of Tokio.

1899--David B. Fraser, New York, is granted two patents in the United States, one for a coffee roaster and one for a coffee cooler.

1899--Ellis M. Potter, New York, is granted a United States patent on a direct-flame gas coffee roasting machine embodying certain improvements on the Tupholme machine, whereby the gas flame is spread over a large area, so avoiding scorching and securing a more thorough and uniform roast.

1900--The Burns direct-flame gas coffee roaster with a patented swing-gate head for feeding and discharging at the center, is first introduced to the trade.

1900--First gear-driven electric coffee grinder is introduced into the United States market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania.

1900--The Burns swing-gate sample-coffee roasting outfit is patented in the United States.

1900--Hills Bros., San Francisco, are the first to pack coffee in a vacuum under the Norton patents.

1900--Charles Morgan, Freeport, Ill., is granted a United States patent on a glass-jar coffee mill, with removable glass measuring cup.

1900--R.F.E. O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted an English and a United States patents on machines for shelling and drying coffee.

1900--Chemically purified and neutralized rosin as a glaze (harz-glasur) for roasted coffee, designed to keep it fresh and palatable, is first discovered and applied in Germany.

1900--Charles Lewis is granted a United States patent on his Kin Hee filter coffee pot.

1900-1901--A new era in coffee is inaugurated when Santos permanently displaces Rio as the world's largest source of supply.

1901--Kato's soluble coffee is put on the United States market by the Kato Coffee Company at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

1901--American Can Co. begins the manufacture and sale of tin coffee cans in the United States.

1901--Improved all-paper cans for coffee (made of strawboard or chip-board, plain or manila-lined) are introduced into the United States market by J.H. Kuechenmeister of St. Louis.

1901--The first issue of The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, devoted to the interests of the tea and coffee trades, appears in New York.

1901--Coffee cultivation is introduced into British East Africa from Réunion Island.

1901--Robert Burns of New York is granted two United States patents on a coffee roaster and cooler.

1901--Joseph Lambert of Marshall, Mich., introduces to the trade in the United States a gas coffee roaster, one of the earliest machines employing gas as fuel for indirect roasting.

1901--T.C. Morewood, Brentford, Middlesex, Eng., is granted an English patent on a gas coffee roaster with a removable sampling tube.

1901--F.T. Holmes joins the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., which then begins to build the Monitor coffee roaster for the trade.

1901--Landers, Frary & Clark's Universal percolator is patented in the United States.

1902--The Coles Manufacturing Co. (Braun Co., successors) and Henry Troemner, Philadelphia, begin the manufacture and sale of gear-driven electric coffee grinders.

1902--The Pan-American Congress, meeting in Mexico City, proposes an international congress for the study of coffee, to meet in New York, October, 1902.

1902--An international coffee congress is held in New York, October 1 to October 30.

1902--Robusta coffee is introduced into Java from the Jardin Botanique at Brussels.

1902--The first fancy duplex paper bag made by machinery from a roll of paper is produced by the Union Bag & Paper Corp.

1902--The Jagenberg Machine Co. begins the introduction into the United States of a line of German-made automatic packaging-and-labeling machines for coffee.

1902--T.K. Baker, Minneapolis, is granted two United States patents on a cloth-filter coffee maker.

1903--A United States patent on a coffee concentrate and process of making the same (soluble coffee) is granted to Sartori Kato of Chicago, assignor to the Kato Coffee Company of Chicago.

1903--F.A. Cauchois introduces Coffey's soluble coffee to the United States coffee trade, the product being ground roasted coffee mixed with sugar and reduced to a powder.

1903--Overproduction in Brazil causes Santos 4's to drop to 3.55 cents on the New York Exchange, the lowest price ever recorded for coffee.

1903--John Arbuckle, New York, is granted a United States patent on a coffee-roasting apparatus, employing a fan to force the "hot fire gases" into the roasting cylinder.

1903--George C. Lester, New York, is granted a United States patent on an electric coffee roaster.

1904--Dr. E. Denekamp is granted a United States patent on a rosin glaze for roasted coffee, designed to preserve its flavor and aroma.

1904--The so-called "cotton crowd," under the leadership of D.J. Sully, forces green-coffee prices up to 11.85 cents, all records for business on the New York Coffee Exchange being smashed by the sale of over a million bags on February 5.

1904--Sigmund Sternau, J.P. Steppe, and L. Strassberger, assignors to S. Sternau & Co., New York, are granted a United States patent on a coffee percolator.

1904-05--Douglas Gordon, assignor to Marcus Mason & Co., New York, is granted United States patents on a coffee pulper and a coffee drier.

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

1905--The Henneman direct-flame gas coffee roaster, a Dutch machine, is introduced into the United States market by C.A. Cross, Fitchburg, Mass.

1905--H.L. Johnston is granted a United States patent on a coffee mill which he assigns to the Hobart Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio.

1905--Frederick A. Cauchois introduces his Private Estate coffee maker, a filtration device employing Japanese filter paper.

1905--Finley Acker, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent on a coffee percolator, employing "porous or bibulous paper" as a filtering medium and having side perforations.

1905--A coffee exchange is opened in Trieste, Austria-Hungary.

1905--The Kaffee-Handels Aktiengesellschaft, Bremen, is granted a German patent on a process for freeing coffee from caffein.

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

1906--G. Washington, an American chemist (born in Belgium of English parents), living temporarily in Guatemala City, invents a refined (soluble) coffee.

1906--Frank T. Holmes, Brooklyn (assignor to the Huntley Manufacturing Co.), is granted a patent for an improvement on a coffee-roasting machine.

1906--Captain Moegling's electric-fuel coffee roaster, invented in 1900, is given a practical demonstration in Germany.

1906--Ludwig Schmidt, assignor to the Essmueller Mill Furnishing Co., St. Louis, is granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.

1906-07--Brazil produces a record-breaking crop of 20,190,000 bags, and the State of São Paulo inaugurates a plan to valorize coffee.

1907--The Pure Food and Drugs Act comes into force in the United States, making it obligatory to label all coffees correctly.

1907--Desiderio Pavoni, Milan, is granted a patent in Italy for an improvement on the Bezzara system of preparing and serving coffee as a rapid infusion of a single cup.

1907--P.E. Edtbauer (Mrs. E. Edtbauer), Chicago, is granted a United States patent on a duplex automatic weighing machine, the first simple, fast, accurate, and moderate-priced machine for weighing coffee.

1908--Dr. John Friederick Meyer, Jr., Ludwig Roselius, and Karl Heinrich Wimmer, are granted a United States patent on a process for freeing coffee of caffein.

1908--Brazil begins a propaganda for coffee in England by subsidizing an English company organized for that purpose.

1908--Porto Rico coffee planters present a memorial to the Congress of the United States asking for a protective tariff of six cents a pound on all foreign coffee.

1908--The revivification of the valorization coffee enterprise is accomplished by a combination of bankers and the Brazil Government, with a loan of $75,000,000 placed through Hermann Sielcken with banking houses in England, Germany, France, Belgium, and the United States.

1908--J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek. Mich., patents a corrugated-cylinder improvement for a gas-and-coal coffee roaster of small capacity (50 to 130 pounds) designed for retail stores.

1908--An improved type of Burns roaster, comprising an open perforated cylinder with flexible back head and balanced front bearing, is granted a patent in the United States.

1908--I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, introduces his Tricolator, an improved device employing Japanese filter paper.

1908-11--R.F.E. O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted several English patents on machines for hulling, washing, drying, and separating coffee.

1909--The G. Washington refined (prepared) soluble coffee is put on the United States market.

1909--The A.J. Deer Co. acquires the Prims coffee roaster and re-introduces it to the trade as the Royal coffee roaster.

1909--The Burns tilting sample-coffee roaster is patented in the United States for gas or electric heating units.

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

1909--C.F. Blanke, St. Louis, is granted two United States patents on a china coffee pot with a dripper bag.

1910--The German caffein-free coffee is first introduced to the trade of the United States by Merck & Co., New York, under the brand name Dekafa, later changed to Dekofa.

1910--B. Belli publishes in Milan, Italy, a work on coffee entitled Il Caffè.

1910--Frank Bartz, assignor to the A.J. Deer Co., Hornell, N.Y., is granted two United States patents on flat and concave coffee-grinding disks provided with concentric rows of inclined teeth, used in electric coffee mills.

1911--All-fiber parchment-lined Damptite cans for coffee are introduced by the American Can Company.

1911--The coffee roasters of the United States organize into a national association.

1911--Robert H. Talbutt, Baltimore (assignor to J.E. Baines, trustee, Washington) is granted a United States patent on an electric coffee roaster.

1911--Edward Aborn, New York, introduces his Make-Right coffee filter, and is granted a United States patent on it.

1912--Robert O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted four United States patents on machines for washing, drying, separating, hulling, and polishing coffee.

1912--The C.F. Blanke Tea & Coffee Co., St. Louis, brings out Magic Cup, later known as Faust Soluble, coffee.

1912--The United States government brings suit to force the sale of coffee stocks held in the United States under the valorization agreement.

1912--John E. King, Detroit, is granted a United States patent on an improved coffee percolator employing a filter-paper attachment.

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

1913--F. Lehnhoff Wyld, Guatemala City, and E.T. Cabarrus organize the "Société du Café Soluble Belna," Brussels, Belgium, to put on the European market a refined soluble coffee under the brand name Belna.

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

1914--The Association Nationale du Commerce des Cafés is established at 5 Place Jules Ferry, Havre, to protect the interests of the coffee trade of all France.

1914--The Kaffee Hag Corporation, capital $1,000,000, is organized in New York to continue marketing in the United States the German caffein-free coffee under its original German brand name.

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

1914--The Phylax coffee maker, employing an improved French-drip principle, is introduced to the trade by the Phylax Coffee Maker Co., Detroit (succeeded in 1922 by the Phylax Company of Pennsylvania).

1914--The first national coffee week is promoted in the United States by the National Coffee Roasters Association.

1914-15--Herbert Galt, Chicago, is granted three United States patents on the Galt coffee pot, all aluminum, having two parts, a removable cylinder employing the French-drip principle, and the containing pot.

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

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

1915--The second national coffee week is held in the United States under the auspices of the National Coffee Roasters Association.

1916--The Federal Tin Co. begins the manufacture of tin coffee containers for use in connection with automatic packing machines.

1916--The National Paper Can Co., Milwaukee, introduces to the United States trade a new hermetically sealed all-paper can for coffee.

1916--A United States patent is granted to I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, for an improvement on his Tricolator.

1916--The Coffee Trade Association, London, is formed to include brokers, merchants, and wholesale dealers.

1916--The Coffee Exchange, City of New York, changes its name to the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, admitting sugar trading.

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

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

1916--Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., is granted two United States patents on cutting-rolls to cut, and not to grind or crush, coffee, later marketed by the B.F. Gump Co., Chicago, as the Ideal steel-cut coffee mill.

1916-17--The first hermetically-sealed all-paper cans for coffee are introduced to the United States trade, patented in 1919 by the National Paper Can Co., Milwaukee.

1917--The Baker Importing Co., Minneapolis and New York, puts on the United States market Barrington Hall soluble coffee.

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

1918--John E. King, Detroit, Mich., is granted a United States patent on an irregular-grind of coffee, consisting of coarsely grinding ten percent of the product and finely grinding ninety percent.

1918--The Charles G. Hires Co., Philadelphia, brings out Hires soluble coffee.

1918--I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of Kato, and the Kato patent, organizes the Soluble Coffee Company of America to supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas; after the armistice, licensing other merchants under the Kato patents, or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them, if desired.

1918--The United States government places coffee importers, brokers, jobbers, roasters, and wholesalers under a war-time licensing system to control imports and prices.

1918-19--The United States government coffee control results in the accumulation at Brazil ports of more than 9,000,000 bags; in spite of which, Brazil speculators force Brazil grades up 75 to 100 percent., costing United States traders millions of dollars.

1919--The Kaffee Hag Corporation becomes Americanized by the sale of 5,000 shares of its stock sold by the alien property custodian and by the purchase of the remaining 5,000 shares by George Gund, Cleveland, Ohio.

1919--William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignors to John E. King, Detroit, Mich., are granted a United States patent on a process for making a new soluble coffee. The process consists in bringing the volatilized caffeol in contact with a petrolatum absorbing medium, where it is held until needed for combination with the evaporated coffee extract.

1919--Floyd W. Robison, Detroit, is granted a United States patent on a process for aging green coffee by treating it with micro-organisms to improve its flavor and to increase its extractive value. The product is put on the market as Cultured coffee.

1919--William Fullard, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent on a "heated fresh air system" for roasting coffee.

1919--A million-dollar propaganda for coffee is begun in the United States by Brazil planters in co-operation with a joint coffee-trade publicity committee.

1920--The third national coffee week is observed in the United States, this time under the auspices of the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee.

1920--Edward Aborn, New York, is granted a United States patent on a Tru-Bru coffee pot, a device embodying striking improvements on the French filter principle.

1920--Alfredo M. Salazar, New York, is 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 the ground coffee held in a cloth sack attached to the faucet.

1920--William H. Pisani, assignor to M.J. Brandenstein & Co., San Francisco, is granted a United States patent on a vacuum process for packing roasted coffee.

1921--The Comité Français du Café is founded in France to increase the consumption of coffee.

1922--The São Paulo legislature at the solicitation of the Sociedade Promotora da Defeza do Café passes a bill increasing the export tax on coffee from Santos to 200 reis per bag to continue the propaganda for coffee in the United States for three years.

[L] Approximate Date.

[M] Legendary.

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A COFFEE BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of references gathered from the principal general and scientific libraries--Arranged in alphabetic order of topics

TOPICS AND SUBDIVISIONS

ADULTERATION BOARD OF HEALTH REGULATIONS BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION CHEMISTRY ANALYSIS, GENERAL CAFFEIN CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE CAFFEOL GREEN COFFEE ROASTED COFFEE CHICORY CHICORY IN COFFEE COFFEE HOUSES CULTURE AND PREPARATION GENERAL REGIONAL SOILS DISEASES AND ENEMIES GENERAL WORKS LITERATURE, POETRY, ROMANCE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES BREWING GLAZING MISCELLANEOUS MODIFICATIONS POLISHING AND COLORING ROASTING AND GRINDING MEDICINAL QUALITIES AND USES ANTISEPTIC AND DISINFECTANT GENERAL PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS GENERAL USE AND MISUSE OF CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE OF CHEWING COFFEE OF DIFFERENT CONSTITUENTS OF GREEN COFFEE OF LEAVES OF COFFEE TREE OF ROASTED COFFEE OF SMOKING COFFEE ON CHILDREN ON DIFFERENT ORGANS AND SYSTEMS SUBSTITUTES GENERAL MALT COFFEE TAXATION, JURISPRUDENCE, ETC. TRADE AND STATISTICS EXCHANGE TABLES GENERAL REGIONAL VALORIZATION

ADULTERATION

ADULTERATION of coffee. Report of the proceedings of a public meeting held at the London Tavern, March 10, 1851. London, 1851.

DAFERT, FRANZ W. Las sustancias minerales del cafeto. San José, 1896. 33 pp. Also, Anales del Instituto médico nacional, 1897, III: 25, 41, 62, 78.

GRAHAM, T. and others. Chemical report on the mode of detecting vegetable substances mixed with coffee for purposes of adulteration. London, 1852. 22 pp. (Board of Inland Revenue).

LES FRAUDES du café dévoilées per un amateur. Paris.

SIMMONDS, P.L. Coffee as it is and as it ought to be. London, 1850.

Periodicals

BERTARELLI, E. Su una sofisticazione del caffè torrefatto mediante aggiunta di acqua e borace. Giornale di Farmacia, 1900, 338-343. Also, Rivista d'Igiene e Sanità pubblica, 1900, XI: 467-472.

CABALLERO, F.G. Inconvenientes del uso del café puro y del que se toma con léche; sofisticacion de los componentes de esta bebida, etc. Boletin de Medicina y Cirugia, 1851, 2 ser. I: 177-185.

CASAÑA, J. Acerca del producto llamado legumina y sofisticaciones del café. Anales de la real Academia de Medicina, 1905, XXX: 359-364.

CHIAPPELLA, A.R. Il caffè macinato che si consuma in Firenze--Alcune sofisticazioni non ancora descritte. Annali d'Igiene sperimentale, 1904, n. s. XIV: 427-448.

---- Le sofisticazioni del caffè che si consuma in Firenze. Società toscana d'Igiene, 1905, n. s. V: 110-116.

CHEVALLIER, J.B. Café indigène. Annales d'Hygiène, 1853, XLIX: 408-412.

COFFEE and its adulterations. Lancet, 1851, I: 21, 465; 1853, I: 390, 477; 1857, I: 195. Also, Pharmaceutical Journal, 10: 394-396.

COLLIN, E. Del caffè e sue falsificazioni. Giornale di Farmacia, di Chimica e di Scienze affini, 1879, XXVIII: 529-535; 1880, XXIX: 20-22.

CORIEL, F. Analyse d'un café artificiel torréfié. Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, 1897, 6. ser. VI: 106-108.