Blog :: Brewing Coffee a short history part two

Throughout the latter half of the 17th Century and the first half of the 18th Century coffee had been brewed in a pot which although altering according to fashion aesthetically remained a simple vessel in which to infuse the ground coffee.

It was the French who began to try and improve the design of coffee pots in the 1760s by the addition of a flannel sack to separate the grounds from the liquid during infusion, but the first 'coffee maker' appeared in Paris in about 1800. This was a 'filter' drip pot known as De Belloy's coffee pot which was at first constructed of tin and was in three parts with the grounds placed in a central basket and the hot water percolating through to the bottom section. This was never patented though. The first patent for a device "for filtering coffee without boiling and bathed in air" was granted to Hadrot in 1806. His design was further improved by an American Benjamin Thompson who became Count Rumford, a colourful character in every respect being at one time or another a spy, soldier, stateman, inventor and Fellow of the Royal Society making contributions to the study of heat by convection.

The difference between a filter and percolator is often misunderstood or confused. To percolate means to drip through a fine metal or china screen whereas filtration is to drip through a porous material such as paper or cloth. By such definition Hadrot's device was a percolator the basic design of which hardly altered right through to the modern day although they are now not so popular since the introduction of the filter machine.

The first use of a filter paper in a machine dates back to 1824 when French tinsmith Casseneuve patented a reverse drip maker using steam pressure to drive the boiling water upwards through the grounds.

The vacuum method which survives in a few households and was popular in the UK during the 1940s and 1950s first appeared in 1839 when James Vardy and Moritz Platow patented a maker which was developed by Madame Vassieux of Lyons into the forerunner of the double glass system. Here the grounds are contained in the top glass and water in the bottom glass is heated so rising up, mixing with the grounds and then falling back as brewed coffee to the bottom. My father remembers having to dust these fragile glass 'balloons' in the window display as one of his first jobs and breaking them much to my grandfather's consternation.

All these basic designs have been improved with the advancement of technology and manufacturing processes and driven by the increase in coffee consumption.

They all improved the way in which coffee could be brewed at home, but in was to be in the 20th century that the biggest impact on coffee brewing would be developed and the one which now dominates the market.

That will lead us into part three.....and the invention of the espresso machine

Posted on Thursday, 22nd December 2011

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