A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY -- All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers

<<==Prev|    ==Home==   | Next==>>

A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY

Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel, literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the present



900[L]—Rhazes, famous Arabian physician, is first writer to mention coffee under the name bunca or bunchum.[M]

1000[L]—Avicenna, Mahommedan physician and philosopher, is the first writer to explain the medicinal properties of the coffee bean, which he also calls bunchum.[M]

1258[L]—Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli, patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, by chance discovers coffee as a beverage at Ousab in Arabia.[M]

1300[L]—The coffee drink is a decoction made from roasted berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle, the powder being placed in boiling water, and the drink taken down, grounds and all.

1350[L]—Persian, Egyptian, and Turkish ewers made of pottery are first used for serving coffee.

1400–1500—Earthenware or metal coffee-roasting plates with small holes, rounded and shaped like a skimmer, come into use in Turkey and Persia over braziers. Also about this time appears the familiar Turkish cylinder coffee mill, and the original Turkish coffee boiler of metal.

1428–48—Spice grinder to stand on four legs first invented; subsequently used to grind coffee.

1454[L]—Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Aden, having discovered the virtues of the berry on a journey to Abyssinia, sanctions the use of coffee in Arabia Felix.

1470–1500—The use of coffee spreads to Mecca and Medina.

1500–1600—Shallow iron dippers with long handles and small foot-rests come into use in Bagdad and in Mesopotamia for roasting coffee.

1505[L]—The Arabs introduce the coffee plant into Ceylon.

1510—The coffee drink is introduced into Cairo.

1511—Kair Bey, governor of Mecca, after consultation with a council of lawyers, physicians, and leading citizens, issues a condemnation of coffee, and prohibits the use of the drink. Prohibition subsequently ordered revoked by the sultan of Cairo.

1517—Sultan Selim I, after conquering Egypt, brings coffee to Constantinople.

1524—The kadi of Mecca closes the public coffee houses because of disorders, but permits coffee drinking at home and in private. His successor allows them to re-open under license.

1530[L]—Coffee drinking introduced into Damascus.

1532[L]—Coffee drinking introduced into Aleppo.

1534—A religious fanatic denounces coffee in Cairo and leads a mob against the coffee houses, many of which are wrecked. The city is divided into two parties, for and against coffee; but the chief judge, after consultation with the doctors, causes coffee to be served to the meeting, drinks some himself, and thus settles the controversy.

1542—Soliman II, at the solicitation of a favorite court lady, forbids the use of coffee, but to no purpose.

1554—The first coffee houses are opened in Constantinople by Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo.

1570[L]–80[L]—Religious zealots in Constantinople, jealous of the increasing popularity of the coffee houses, claim roasted coffee to be a kind of charcoal, and the mufti decides that it is forbidden by the law. Amurath III subsequently orders the closing of all coffee houses, on religious grounds, classing coffee with wine, forbidden by the Koran. The order is not strictly observed, and coffee drinking continues behind closed shop-doors and in private houses.

1573—Rauwolf, German physician and botanist, first European to mention coffee, makes a journey to the Levant.

1580—Prospero Alpini (Alpinus), Italian physician and botanist, journeys to Egypt and brings back news of coffee.

1582–83—The first printed reference to coffee appears as chaube in Rauwolf's Travels, published in German at Frankfort and Lauingen.

1585—Gianfraneesco Morosini, city magistrate in Constantinople, reports to the Venetian senate the use by the Turks "of a black water, being the infusion of a bean called cavee."

1587—The first authentic account of the origin of coffee is written by the Sheik Abd-al-Kâdir,[Pg 726] in an Arabian manuscript preserved in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.

1592—The first printed description of the coffee plant (called bon) and drink (called caova) appears in Prospero Alpini's work The Plants of Egypt, written in Latin, and published in Venice.

1596[L]—Belli sends to the botanist de l'Écluse "seeds used by the Egyptians to make a liquid they call cave."

1598—The first printed reference to coffee in English appears as chaoua in a note of Paludanus in Linschoten's Travels, translated from the Dutch, and published in London.

1599—Sir Antony Sherley, first Englishman to refer to coffee drinking in the Orient, sails from Venice for Aleppo.

1600[L]—Pewter serving-pots appear.

1600—Iron spiders on legs, designed to sit in open fires, are used for roasting coffee.

1600[L]—Coffee cultivation introduced into southern India at Chickmaglur, Mysore, by a Moslem pilgrim, Baba Budan.[M]

1600–32—Mortars and pestles of wood, and of metal (iron, bronze, and brass) come into common use in Europe for making coffee powder.

1601—The first printed reference to coffee in English, employing the more modern form of the word, appears in W. Parry's book, Sherley's Travels, as "a certain liquor which they call coffe."

1603—Captain John Smith, English adventurer, and founder of the colony of Virginia, in his book of travels published this year, refers to the Turks' drink, "coffa."

1610—Sir George Sandys, the poet, visits Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine, and records that the Turks "sip a drink called coffa (of the berry that it is made of) in little china dishes, as hot as they can suffer it."

1614—Dutch traders visit Aden to examine into the possibilities of coffee cultivation and coffee trading.

1615—Pietro Della Valle writes a letter from Constantinople to his friend Mario Schipano at Venice that when he returns he will bring with him some coffee, which he believes "is a thing unknown in his native country."

1615—Coffee is introduced into Venice.

1616—The first coffee is brought from Mocha to Holland by Pieter Van dan Broecke.

1620—Peregrine White's wooden mortar and pestle (used for "braying" coffee) is brought to America on the Mayflower by White's parents.

1623–27—Francis Bacon, in his Historia Vitae et Mortis (1623), speaks of the Turks' "caphe"; and in his Sylva Sylvarum (1627) writes: "They have in Turkey a drink called coffa made of a berry of the same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent ... this drink comforteth the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion."

1625—Sugar is first used to sweeten coffee in Cairo.

1632—Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy says: "The Turks have a drink called coffa, so named from a berry black as soot and as bitter."

1634—Sir Henry Blount makes a voyage to the Levant, and is invited to drink "cauphe" in Turkey.

1637—Adam Olearius, German traveler and Persian scholar, visits Persia (1633–39); and on his return tells how in this year he observed that the Persians drink chawa in their coffee houses.

1637—Coffee drinking is introduced into England by Nathaniel Conopios, a Cretan student at Balliol College, Oxford.

1640—Parkinson, in his Theatrum Botanicum, publishes the first botanical description of the coffee plant in English—referred to as "Arbor Bon cum sua Buna. The Turkes Berry Drinke."

1640—The Dutch merchant, Wurffbain, offers for sale in Amsterdam the first commercial shipment of coffee from Mocha.

1644—Coffee is introduced into France at Marseilles by P. de la Roque, who brought back also from Constantinople the instruments and vessels for making it.

1645—Coffee comes into general use in Italy.

1645—The first coffee house is opened in Venice.

1647—Adam Olearius publishes in German his Persian Voyage Description, containing an account of coffee manners and customs in Persia in 1633–39.

1650[L]—Varnar, Dutch minister resident at the Ottoman Porte, publishes a treatise on coffee.

1650[L]—The individual hand-turned metal (tin-plate or tinned copper) roaster appears; shaped like the Turkish coffee grinder, for use over open fires.

1650—The first coffee house in England is opened at Oxford by Jacobs, a Jew.

1650—Coffee is introduced into Vienna.

1652—The first London coffee house is opened by Pasqua Rosée in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill.

1652—The first printed advertisement for coffee in English appears in the form of a handbill issued by Pasqua Rosée, acclaiming "The Vertue of the Coffee Drink."

1656—Grand Vizier Kuprili, during the war with Candia, and for political reasons, suppresses the coffee houses and prohibits coffee. For the first violation the punishment is cudgeling; for a second, the offender is sewn up in a leather bag and thrown into the Bosporus.

1657—The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appears in The Publick Adviser of London.

1657—Coffee is introduced privately into Paris by Jean de Thévenot.

1658—The Dutch begin the cultivation of coffee in Ceylon.

1660[L]—The first French commercial importation of coffee arrives in bales at Marseilles from Egypt.

1660—Coffee is first mentioned in the English statute books when a duty of four pence is laid upon every gallon made and sold "to be paid by the maker."

[Pg 727]1660[L]—Nieuhoff, Dutch ambassador to China, is the first to make a trial of coffee with milk, in imitation of tea with milk.

1660—Elford's "white iron" machine for roasting coffee is much used in England, being "turned on a spit by a jack."

1662—Coffee is roasted in Europe over charcoal fires without flame, in ovens, and on stoves; being "browned in uncovered earthenware tart dishes, old pudding pans, fry pans."

1663—All English coffee houses are required to be licensed.

1663—Regular imports of Mocha coffee begin at Amsterdam.

1665—The improved Turkish long brass combination coffee grinder with folding handle and cup receptacle for green beans, for boiling and serving, is first made in Damascus. About this period the Turkish coffee set, including long-handled boiler and porcelain cups in brass holders, comes into vogue.

1668—Coffee is introduced into North America.

1669—Coffee is introduced publicly into Paris by Soliman Aga, the Turkish ambassador.

1670—Coffee is roasted in larger quantities in small closed sheet-iron cylinders having long iron handles designed to turn them in open fireplaces. First used in Holland. Later, in France, England, and the United States.

1670—The first attempt to grow coffee in Europe at Dijon, France, results in failure.

1670—Coffee is introduced into Germany.

1670—Coffee is first sold in Boston.

1671—The first coffee house in France is opened in Marseilles in the neighborhood of the Exchange.

1671—The first authoritative printed treatise devoted solely to coffee, written in Latin by Faustus Nairon, professor of Oriental languages, Rome, is published in that city.

1671—The first printed treatise in French, largely devoted to coffee, Concerning the Use of Coffee, Tea and Chocolate, by Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, purporting to be a translation from the Latin, is published at Lyons.

1672—Pascal, an Armenian, first sells coffee publicly at St. Germain's fair, Paris, and opens the first Parisian coffee house.

1672—Great silver coffee pots (with all the utensils belonging to them of the same metal) are used at St.-Germain's fair, Paris.

1674—The Women's Petition Against Coffee is published in London.

1674—Coffee is introduced into Sweden.

1675—Charles II issues a proclamation to close all London coffee houses as places of sedition. Order revoked on petition of the traders in 1676.

1679—An attempt by the physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee on purely dietetic grounds fails of effect; and consumption increases at such a rate that traders in Lyons and Marseilles begin to import the green bean by the ship-load from the Levant.

1679[L]—The first coffee house in Germany is opened by an English merchant at Hamburg.

1683—Coffee is sold publicly in New York.

1683—Kolschitzky opens the first coffee house in Vienna.

1684—Dufour publishes at Lyons, France, the first work on The Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate.

1685—Café au lait is first recommended for use as a medicine by Sieur Monin, a celebrated physician of Grenoble, France.

1686—John Ray, one of the first English botanists to extol the virtues of coffee in a scientific treatise, publishes his Universal Botany of Plants in London.

1686—The first coffee house is opened in Regensburg, Germany.

1689—Café de Procope, the first real French café, is opened in Paris by François Procope, a Sicilian, coming from Florence.

1689—The first coffee house is opened in Boston.

1691—Portable coffee-making outfits to fit the pocket find favor in France.

1692—The "lantern" straight-line coffee pot with true cone lid, thumb-piece, and handle fixed at right angle to the spout, is introduced into England, succeeding the curved Oriental serving pot.

1694—The first coffee house is opened in Leipzig, Germany.

1696—The first coffee house (The King's Arms) is opened in New York.

1696—The first coffee seedlings are brought from Kananur, on the Malabar coast, and introduced into Java at Kedawoeng, near Batavia, but not long afterward are destroyed by flood.

1699—The second shipment of coffee plants from Malabar to Java by Henricus Zwaardecroon becomes the progenitors of all the arabica coffee trees in the Dutch East Indies.

1699—Galland's translation of the earliest Arabian manuscript on coffee appears in Paris under the title, Concerning the First Use of Coffee and the Progress It Afterward Made.

1700—Ye coffee house, the first in Philadelphia, is built by Samuel Carpenter.

1700–1800—Small portable coke or charcoal stoves made of sheet-iron, and fitted with horizontal revolving cylinders turned by hand, come into use for family roasting.

1701—Coffee pots appear in England with perfect domes and bodies less tapering.

1702—The first "London" coffee house is established in Philadelphia.

1704—Bull's machine for roasting coffee, probably the first to use coal for commercial roasting, is patented in England.

1706—The first samples of Java coffee, and a coffee plant grown in Java, are received at the Amsterdam botanical gardens.

1707—The first coffee periodical, The New and Curious Coffee House, is issued at Leipzig by Theophilo Georgi, as a kind of organ of the first kaffee-klatsch.

1711—Java coffee is first sold at public auction in Amsterdam.

1711—A novelty in coffee-making is introduced into France by infusing the ground beans in a fustian (linen) bag.

1712—The first coffee house is opened in Stuttgart, Germany.

1713—The first coffee house is opened in Augsburg, Germany.

[Pg 728]1714—The thumb-piece on English coffee pots disappears, and the handle is no longer set at a right angle to the spout.

1714—A coffee plant, raised from seed of the plant received at the Amsterdam botanical gardens in 1706, is presented to Louis XIV of France, and is nurtured in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.

1715—Jean La Roque publishes in Paris his Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse (voyage to Arabia the Happy) containing much valuable information on coffee in Arabia and its introduction into France.

1715—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Haiti and Santo Domingo.

1715–17—Coffee cultivation is introduced into the Isle of Bourbon (now Réunion) by a sea captain of St. Malo, who brings the plants from Mocha by direction of the French Company of the Indies.

1718—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Surinam by the Dutch.

1718—Abbé Massieu's Carmen Caffaeum, the first and most notable poem on coffee written in Latin, is composed, and is read before the Academy of Inscriptions.

1720—Caffè Florian is opened in Venice by Floriono Francesconi.

1721—The first coffee house is opened in Berlin, Germany.

1721—Meisner publishes a treatise on coffee, tea, and chocolate.

1722—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Cayenne, from Surinam.

1723—The first coffee plantation started in the Portuguese colony of Pará, Brazil, with plants brought from Cayenne (French Guiana) results in failure.

1723—Gabriel de Clieu, Norman captain of infantry, sails from France, accompanied by one of the seedlings of the Java tree presented to Louis XIV, and with it shares his drinking water on a protracted voyage to Martinique.

1730—The English bring the cultivation of coffee to Jamaica.

1732—The British Parliament seeks to encourage the cultivation of coffee in British possessions in America by reducing the inland duty.

1732—Bach's celebrated Coffee Cantata is published in Leipzig.

1737—The Merchants' coffee house is established in New York; by some called the true cradle of American liberty and the birthplace of the Union.

1740—Coffee culture is introduced into the Philippines from Java by Spanish missionaries.

1748—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Cuba by Don José Antonio Gelabert.

1750—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Celebes from Java.

1750—The straight-line coffee pot in England begins to give way to the reactionary movement in art favoring bulbous bodies and serpentine spouts; the sides are nearly parallel, while the dome of the lid is flattened to a slight elevation above the rim.

1752—Intensive coffee cultivation is resumed in the Portuguese colonies in Pará and Amazonas, Brazil.

1754—A white-silver coffee roaster, eight inches high by four inches in diameter, is mentioned as being among the deliveries made to the army of Louis XV at Versailles.

1755—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Porto Rico from Martinique.

1760—Decoction, or boiling, of coffee in France is generally replaced by the infusion method.

1760—João Alberto Castello Branco plants in Rio de Janeiro the first coffee tree brought to Brazil from Goa, Portuguese India.

1761—Brazil exempts coffee from export duty.

1763—Donmartin, a tinsmith of St. Benoit, France, invents a novel coffee pot, the inside of which is "filled by a fine flannel sack put in its entirety." It has a tap to draw the coffee.

1764—Count Pietro Verri publishes in Milan, Italy, a philosophic and literary periodical, entitled Il Caffè (the coffee house).

1765—Mme. de Pompadour's golden coffee mill is mentioned in her inventory.

1770—Complete revolution in style of English serving pots; return to the flowing lines of the Turkish ewer.

1770—Chicory is first used with coffee in Holland.

1770–73—Coffee cultivation begins in Rio, Minãs, and São Paulo.

1771—John Dring is granted a patent in England for a compound coffee.

1774—Molke, a Belgian monk, introduces the coffee plant from Surinam into the garden of the Capuchin monastery at Rio de Janeiro.

1774—A letter is sent by the Committee of Correspondence from the Merchants' coffee house, New York, to Boston, proposing the American Union.

1777—King Frederick the Great of Prussia issues his celebrated coffee and beer manifesto, recommending the use of the latter in place of the former among the lower classes.

1779—Richard Dearman is granted an English patent for a new method of making mills for grinding coffee.

1779—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Costa Rica from Cuba by the Spanish voyager, Navarro.

1781—King Frederick the Great of Prussia establishes state coffee-roasting plants in Germany, declares the coffee business a government monopoly, and forbids the common people to roast their own coffee. "Coffee-smellers" make life miserable for violators of the law.

1784—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Venezuela by seed from Martinique.

1784—A prohibition against the use of coffee, except by the rich, is issued by Maximilian Frederick, elector of Cologne.

1785—Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts introduces chicory to the United States.

1789—The first import duty on coffee, two and a half cents a pound, is levied by the United States.

1789—George Washington is officially greeted, April 23, as president-elect of the U.S. at the Merchants coffee house in New York.

1790—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Mexico from the West Indies.

1790—The first wholesale coffee-roasting plant in the United States begins operation at 4 Great Dock Street, New York.

[Pg 729]1790—The first United States advertisement for coffee appears in the New York Daily Advertiser.

1790—The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased to four cents a pound.

1790—The first crude package coffee is sold in "narrow mouthed stoneware pots and jars," by a New York merchant.

1792—The Tontine coffee house is established in New York.

1794—The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased to five cents a pound.

1798—The first United States patent for an improved coffee-grinding mill is granted to Thomas Bruff, Sr.

1800[L]—Chicory comes into use in Holland as a substitute for coffee.

1800[L]—De Belloy's coffee pot, made of tin, later of porcelain, appears—the original French drip coffee pot.

1800[L]–1900[L]—There is a return in England to the style of coffee-serving pot having the handle at right angle to the spout.

1802—The first French patent on a coffee maker is granted to Denobe, Henrion, and Rouch for "a pharmacological-chemical coffee making device by infusion."

1802—Charles Wyatt is granted a patent in London on an apparatus for distilling coffee.

1804[L]—The first cargo of coffee—and other East Indian produce—from Mocha, to be shipped in an American bottom, reaches Salem, Mass.

1806—James Henckel is granted a patent in England on a coffee dryer, "an invention communicated to him by a certain foreigner."

1806—The first French patent on an improved French drip coffee pot for making coffee by filtration, without boiling, is granted to Hadrot.

1806—The coffee percolator (really an improved French drip coffee pot) is invented by Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), an expatriated American scientist, in Paris.

1809—The first importation of Brazil coffee by the United States arrives at Salem, Mass.

1809—Coffee becomes an article of commerce in Brazil.

1811—Walter Rochfort, a London grocer and tea dealer, obtains a patent in London on a compressed coffee tablet.

1812—Coffee in England is roasted in an iron pan or hollow cylinder made of sheet iron; and then is pounded in a mortar, or ground in a hand-mill.

1812—Anthony Schick is granted an English patent on a method, or process, for roasting coffee, for which specifications were never enrolled.

1812—Coffee is roasted in Italy in a glass flask with a loose cork, held over a clear fire of burning coals and continually agitated.

1812—The import duty, on coffee in the United States is increased to ten cents a pound as a war-revenue measure.

1813—A United States patent is granted Alexander Duncan Moore, New Haven, Conn., on a mill for grinding and pounding coffee.

1814—A war-time fever of speculation in tea and coffee causes the citizens of Philadelphia to form a non-consumption association, each member pledging himself not to pay more than twenty-five cents a pound for coffee, and not to use tea unless it is already in the country.

1816—The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to five cents a pound.

1817[L]—The coffee biggin (said to have been invented by a man named Biggin) comes into common use in England.

1818—The Havre coffee market for spot coffee and to arrive is established.

1819—Morize, a Paris tinsmith, invents a double drip reversible coffee pot.

1819—Laurens is granted a French patent on the original pumping-percolator device in which the boiling water was raised by steam pressure and sprayed over the ground coffee.

1820—Peregrine Williamson, Baltimore, is granted the first United States patent for an improvement on a coffee roaster.

1820—Another early form of the French percolator is patented by Gaudet, a Paris tinsmith.

1822—Nathan Reed, Belfast, Me., is granted a United States patent on a coffee huller.

1824—Richard Evans is granted a patent in England for a commercial method of roasting coffee, comprising a cylinder sheet-iron roaster fitted with improved flanges for mixing, a hollow tube and trier for sampling the coffee while roasting, and a means for turning the roaster completely over to empty it.

1825—The pumping percolator, working by steam pressure and by partial vacuum, comes into vogue in France, Germany, Austria, and elsewhere.

1825—The first coffee-pot patent in the United States is issued to Lewis Martelley, New York.

1825—Coffee cultivation is introduced into Hawaii from Rio de Janeiro.

1827—The first patent for a really practicable French coffee percolator is granted to Jacques Augustin Gandais, a manufacturer of plated jewelry in Paris.

1828—Charles Parker, Meriden, Conn., begins work on the original Charles Parker coffee mill.

1829—The first French patent on a coffee mill is granted Colaux et Cie, Molsheim, France.

1829—Établissements Lauzaune begin the manufacture of hand-turned cylinder coffee roasting machines in Paris.

1830—The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to two cents a pound.

1831—David Selden is granted a patent in England for a coffee-grinding mill having cones of cast-iron.

1831—John Whitmee & Co., England, begin the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.

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.

[Pg 730]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.

[Pg 731]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.

[Pg 732]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.

[Pg 733]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.

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.

[Pg 734]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.

[Pg 735]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.

[Pg 736]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[Pg 737] 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.

Coffee Pot

[Pg 738]

A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY-- All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers

<<==Prev|    ==Home==   | Next==>>