Coffee Makers Too Have Stories to Tell

Long, long before Starbucks and its $4 cups of java drawn from some state-of-the-art coffee makers, preparing shots of caffeine to stimulate some flagging souls is quite a simple exercise. A certain amount ground or plain roasted coffee beans were thrown into a boiling pan or pot of water. The container’s lid is closed and after some time, the brew emits its characteristic aroma, indicating that the potent beverage is ready for drinking.

Today, many methods have already been developed to make coffee. Development of the first modern way to make coffee occurred more than 200 years ago and its design has changed little since. Credit goes to the French who invented the “biggin” during the 1800s. This invention consists of a pot with two levels. The upper compartment holds the coffee upon which water was poured. Holes in this compartment allow the liquid brew to settle into the second compartment, ready for consumption. Essentially, this is the principle behind the French press that is available in the market nowadays.

Another French design whose principle is still very much in use is the “pumping percolator”. This invention boils water in a bottom chamber and the percolated or evaporated liquid is forced up a tube through the ground coffee. The liquid then trickles back to the bottom chamber for collection and drinking. This system appears as the grandfather of today’s drip-brew coffee makers. In these modern-day gadgets, the ground coffee goes into metal or paper filters inside a funnel-shaped chamber atop a ceramic or glass coffee pot. Water is boiled in a separate chamber of the appliance which goes directly into the funnel containing the coffee. The resulting brew eventually trickles into the waiting pot.

The same principle was already at work as early as 1865 when a Massachusetts native, James Nason, patented a design for an electric percolator. A more advanced version was developed by Hanson Goodrich, a farmer from Illinois, acquiring a patent for his invention in 1889. Goodrich’s design is quite similar to the modern stovetop percolators. Like these contemporary type of coffee makers, water is boiled in a pot equipped with a removable top. The heated water flows through a metal tube into the coffee grounds contained in a brew basket. The extracted coffee-water mixture again drains into the pot and the cycle is repeated until the brew is just right for drinking, a judgment call which could indicate the really good java lover.