发信人: pstam(喀法教授)
整理人: hyz1216(2003-12-27 00:47:17), 站内信件
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COFFEE BREWERS
（有关图片请参考：http://www.gardfoods.com/coffee/coffee.brewings.htm）
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Whore house madams were among the foremost inventors in making better coffee brewers. The old saying "everyone and his uncle got involved" is not at all accurate when talking about who made the most significant steps in developing devices for the production of coffee. Unheard of for the times, women received as many coffee brewing patents as men. Coffee is a social drink which is more influenced by women than men. This condition is still on going in most modern times too
Not only was brewing devices influenced by women in promoting coffee, but women also fought over it. In 1674, women wanted to outlaw coffee in England. Seems their men spent too much time in coffee houses drinking it. Their efforts didn't amount to much, but it was still an effort none the less.
Right from the beginning, coffee pots were made for coffee. This particular coffee pot has a sharp pour spout which traps the floating grinds, and a flat squat bottom which traps the sunken grinds. This particular pot is highly unique to coffee and demonstrates the early attempts to make a brewer which the brew is easily drunk.
Whole styles of pots were developed in the 16 & 1700's in which the basic design was around the way coffee grinds react. The fat bulge with the pour spout in the middle were used to separate the coffee grinds from the drink. Most the time, coffee grinds were left to sit in a hot pot, so pot design became a way of filtering the coffee drink.
Undoubtedly, cloth filters were used to filter the coffee grinds out in many locations, but no evidence of a commercial device to do that is evident.
Then came the innovation which started off coffee brewer development. Someone poured hot water through a coffee grind filled sock and created the filter. In many parts of the world, still today, old socks are used to filter and brew coffee. To say the least, it is an interesting development.
The commercial name given to the device was Mr. Biggin. It is surmised that the name was really bagging but time lost the word to slovenliness and Biggin pots appeared for the first time around 1780. What can be said about these filter coffee pots is that they appeared simultaneously everywhere.
Although a great innovation, Biggin Pots had problems. They confined the coffee grind. If the coffee grind was too fine, the water could not penetrate the coffee and would simply run through the sides of the filter. If too coarse, the water ran straight through without brewing coffee.
This isn't a good statement about the state of coffee brewers but rather a statement about the state of coffee grinders. At the time, coffee grinders were not very good.
Another innovation which came on the scene after the Biggin was the metal water filter spreader coffee brewer. This device was not quite like the metal filters used to actually filter the coffee. This device was used to spread the water evenly over the internal coffee while it dripped down through the filter.
Unfortunately, old socks got rotten and began to add taste to the brew. People complained of the taste of cotton, wool, burlap, and the such used to make the various filters of the day. Around 1802, a metal coffee filter was patented in France.
Shortly after the metal filter came the problem of floating grinds. Cloth filters didn't seem to have the same problem because they moved with the grind rippling with the pouring water. In 1806 another coffee patent used a tin hardened with bismuth called a rammer to compress the level of coffee. The basic object here was to keep the coffee grinds in place not to squeeze them.
Like magic, coffee inventors went nuts. All sorts of devices were developed to brew a better cup of coffee. Both the Biggin and Spreader use hot water poured over the coffee grinds. Madame Vassieux of Lyons developed a vacuum pot. The picture is of one of the oldest glass vacuum pots in the world. This pot is very similar to the Vissieux patent and may be a Vassieux machine.
Another name synonymous with vacuum coffee pots was Madame Richard. Vacuum pots and percolators came into being around the same time. There is a big difference between percolators and vacuum pots. In both, the water is pumped into the upper compartment. In this process, the coffee is being brewed at the correct temperature.
A vital factor in brewing a better cup of coffee is the temperature. In the vacuum coffee pot, when the heat source is taken away, the steam condenses in the lower compartment and creates a vacuum which draws the brewed coffee back down into the lower compartment.
The vacuum coffee pot had its problems. One serious problem was pressure. Although most vacuum pots were glass, metal ones were available. Seems, people liked seeing the coffee brew. Things like spring safety valves and tilt pour spouts got patents. Some had special tops which could be remove, allowing the coffee to stay in the top for stronger taste.
There is however, a major problem with glass and steam. Additionally, glass in the old days was not all that strong. Some pots blew up. But despite the danger, glass prevailed because people could see the coffee.
One of the objects of the vacuum pot was to heat the water and brew the coffee all at the same time. In the Raparlier vacuum pot (1859) the glass upper bowl on which a cup gradation were marked in order to determine how much coffee was brewed.
Another benefit of the vacuum pot was the size of the filter. The filter fits in the neck between the upper brewing bowl and the lower boiling and serving pot. This lower costs because it could be thrown away easily and was not all that expensive in the first place. In the Raparlier pot, the filter was hemp. Hemp is a plant generally outlawed these days, but normally it was used as rope. Hemp was easily rapped around in the filter neck, pulled out easily, and thrown away after each use. It beat an old sock any way.
A more technical name for this type of coffee pot was Hydropneumatique (Hydropneumatic) pot. This pot was in use right up through 1960's. Silex made a vacuum pot produced in the USA in the mid 1900's. This was a very popular style design.
One major innovation the vacuum pot was putting the two bowls side by side. This is known as the balanced beam coffee pot. The balanced beam vacuum pot worked on the same theory as the vertical vacuum pot but when the brew filled the brew bowl, the weight changed pulling a device which extinguished the heat source. True automation for its time.
Around the same time the coffee vacuum pot was invented another pot which did the same thing was invented. This was the percolator coffee pot. This coffee pot worked on a different principle than the coffee vacuum pot. Instead of heating the whole bowl of water and forcing it up to a top bowl, the percolator heated just the water near the bottom of the hot water pot. Bubbles form at the bottom of any boiling water pot. All one needs do is boil water in a pot and see for themselves.
The bubble burst which has trapped steam in it is concentrated in a small tube running up through the center of the coffee pot. This sucked water up with the steam bubble. As the burst leaves the tube, the pressure changes and the water which is sucked up with the bubble spreads out over the top of a filter which contains the coffee. The water then percolates back down through the coffee grinds to bottom of the pot.
The coffee percolator design is around today. They work great. Some disadvantages with the old percolator were the inability to control weight shifts which didn't allow the device to work well automated. The second disadvantage was the large filter. The large filter cost more than a simple rope twin so the percolator took a while to catch on. It wasn't until mass manufacturing and distribution did the percolator become popular.
A third design came into being around the same time the vacuum and percolator pots came into use, this was the plunger filter. This filter contained the coffee grind between two filters on top and bottom of a compartment hooked up with a push rod.
The theory with the plunger or French Coffee Press was the force the coffee down into the hot water. The advantage with this device is short brewing times. Theoretically, the coffee grind can be remove quickly after brewing so the bitter taste does not appear. Unfortunately, moving enclosures were hard to manufacture.
The plunger has truly been one of the prominent coffee makers of all time. Its simplicity and by its very nature, it is impossible to make the coffee bitter. Due to another modern invention, the microwave oven, the plunger coffee pot works well in modern times.
Like all the devices which go into making a cup of coffee, the brewer lent itself to electricity. Here is one of the first electric filter coffee machines made by Willy Brandl. The major development which drove the electric coffee machine business was not the heat source but the switch that turned it off at the right time. A little mercury float switch is mounted int the center top piece which turns off the heat when the water level got too low. This device is the onset of coffee machines.
An extremely used modern day device is the drip brewer. The ground coffee goes in a container on top of the machine. If the machine does not have a hot water maker associated with it which usually pumps the water to the grinds, the hot water is pour into the top container which holds the grinds. The water then saturates the coffee grinds and drips out into another container.
These come in many different styles. Two distinct differences are those which heat the water in the machine and those which hot water is pored into them. Some use just a metal filter and others use a paper filter. Additionally, they can be made of metal or plastic. These are fairly simple and cheap. But, not a cheap as an old sock.
Another distinct variant are those which keep the brewed coffee hot by a hot plate where the brew container is and those that do not. Unfortunately, many of restaurants allow their coffee to boil to powder scum at the bottom of the coffee pot. Have you ever had some? Yuk!
Yet, another way of brewing coffee is the espresso machine. The difference between a filtered coffee and an espresso coffee is the water goes through the grains rather than around them. In espresso coffee, highly heated water is forced through compressed coffee such that the coffee grounds are irrigated. This device requires some mechanical switching and valves
（未完，待续）
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