A History of Coffee Making Inventions

It's quite brief and exceedingly non-comprehensive, this history of coffee-making inventions.

But, coffee! Coffee is delicious and some of us can't morning without it. AND some of the earliest patents that still make sense in modern society are for coffee brewing. 

For example, this 1838 (only a few years after the original patent office was lost to fire) patent, no. 952, Apparatus for Making Coffee and Tea, still looks much like a simple camping coffee pot. It is clearly recognizable as some kind of kettle.

I think it's pretty obviously some kind of kettle

A few decades later, in 1865, we have some improvements for a Coffee-Percolator, patent no. 51,741.  Nason's percolator is decidedly more complex, including some springs to help facilitate the expansion during heating/percolating. Nonetheless, it could still be recognizable to anyone today who makes coffee with a stove top percolator. 

Check out that spring action!

But that doesn't mean there haven't been any changes or improvements in percolators. After all, over a century later, this percolator basket assembly was one of a few 1970s patents obtained by Corning Glass Works--the company that owns Pyrex--for their unique, new, sturdier take on a stove top percolator. Percolator Pump and Basket Assembly, patent no. 3,803,998, is essentially what inspired this post. We have a vintage Pyrex glass percolator on my stove. And, thanks to this position's curse, it got me thinking about coffee maker patents. 

It's not exactly the same as what I use

We drink vintage patented coffee in the Edlund-Arthur household

(I've decided to skip over electric percolators, because while that is also an innovation in coffee brewing, it is also less interesting to me.)

Coffee makers have become very sophisticated machines, even when they aren't restaurant grade or large affairs. For example, the Keurig K-Cup system changed how many people prepare and brew their coffee. In 1994, Keurig obtained patent no. 5,325,765 for this Beverage Filter Cartridge, which is very similar to what we now see lining shelves in stores. 

The first K-Cup iteration

About ten years later, in 2004, Keurig would be granted a patent for their puncturing system that is common to many single-use pod coffee brewing systems today. Patent no. 6,708,600 describes the system in Puncturing and Venting of Single Serve Beverage Filter Cartridge. I have something very similar in my kitchen (but I've upgraded to a reusable pod).

It looks exceedingly complex in this dissected view

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Keurig hasn't stopped updating their machines, applying for and receiving patents for a number of improvements. Here's a more recent example, a 2018 patent, no. 10,136,754, for  Beverage Machine Cartridge Holder. This cartridge holder is size adjustable, which I can appreciate, because I bought an off-brand reusable pod for my first Keurig and found it didn't fit. 

This is not the same coffee maker in the patent nor is it the first model I purchased that had size issues

For those of you who love some iced coffee, there are patented machines for making specific styles. Among some of the most recently granted patents is no. 12,004,677, Japanese-Style Iced Coffee Maker. I've never been a huge fan of iced coffee unless it's a dessert coffee, but I can understand the appeal on some steamy Houston mornings.

Ice included in the patent figure, just in case

Let me know if you'd like to see some other coffee IP. I rather conspicuously picked patents that were most interesting and familiar to my own coffee habits, but I'd be interested in learning about potential Chemex style patents, or who had one of the first drip coffee brewers patented in the US, for example. I know there are many librarians who survive via coffee, so don't be shy to let me know in comments!