All About Coffee Part 85

In 1783-84 the Congress of the United States considered the imposition of a duty on "seven cla.s.ses of goods consumed by the rich or in general use; liquors, sugars, teas, coffees, cocoa, mola.s.ses and pepper; the tax to be determined by the yearly imports."

At that time there was being imported twelve times as much Bohea tea as of all others, but tea consumption was only one-twelfth pound per capita. Total tea imports were 325,000 pounds. "Low as was the importation of tea", says John Bach McMaster, "that of coffee was lower still by a third. Indeed, it was scarcely used outside of the great cities." The average annual coffee imports at that period were 200.000 pounds.

Governor Bowdoin of Ma.s.sachusetts introduced chicory into the United States in 1785.

The first import duty, of two and one-half cents a pound, was levied on coffee by the United States in 1789. The princ.i.p.al sources of supply up to that time were the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Haiti, and Jamaica; and most of the business was in the hands of Dutch and English traders.

What is thought to be the first wholesale coffee-roasting plant in America began operations at 4 Great Dock (now Pearl) Street, New York, early in 1790. In that same year the first American advertis.e.m.e.nt for coffee appeared in the _New York Daily Advertiser_. A second "coffee manufactory" started up at 232 Queen (also Pearl) Street, New York, late in 1790.

In the same year, 1790, the government increased the import duty on coffee to four cents a pound. In 1794 the tax was raised to five cents a pound.

In George Was.h.i.+ngton's household account book for 1793 appears an entry showing a purchase of coffee from Benjamin Dorsay, a Philadelphia grocer, for eight dollars. The quant.i.ty is not given.

About 1804 Captain Joseph Ropes in the s.h.i.+p Recovery, of Salem, Ma.s.s., brought from Mocha the first cargo of coffee and other East Indian produce in an American bottom.

The first cargo of Brazil coffee, consisting of 1,522 bags, was received at Salem, Ma.s.s., per s.h.i.+p Marquis de Someruelas in 1809. Brazil's total production that year was less than 30,000 bags; but by 1871 more than 2,000,000 bags were exported.

Java coffee could be bought on the Amsterdam market in 1810 for 42 to 46 cents. By 1812, there had been an advance to $1.08 per pound. Holland, not Brazil, ruled the world's coffee markets in those days.

When the war of 1812 made necessary more revenue, imports of coffee were taxed ten cents a pound. A war-time fever of speculation in tea and coffee followed, and by 1814 prices to the consumer had advanced to such an extent (coffee was 45 cents a pound) that the citizens of Philadelphia formed a non-consumption a.s.sociation, each member pledging himself "not to pay more than 25 cents a pound for coffee and not to consume tea that wasn't already in the country."

The coffee duty was reduced in 1816 to five cents a pound; in 1830, to two cents; in 1831, to one cent; and in 1832 coffee was placed on the free list. It remained there until 1861, when a duty of four cents a pound was again imposed as a war-revenue measure. This was increased to five cents in 1862. It was reduced to three cents in 1871; and the duty was repealed in 1872. Coffee has remained on the free list ever since.

The manufacture of machinery required in the coffee business began in the eighteenth century. The first coffee-grinder patent in the United States was issued to Thomas Bruff, Sr., in 1798. The first United States patent on an improvement on a roaster was issued to Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore in 1820. The first United States patent on a coffee-plantation machine, a coffee huller, was granted to Nathan Reed of Belfast, Me., in 1822. The first United States coffee-maker patent was issued to Lewis Martelley of New York, in 1825.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST UNITED STATES COFFEE-GRINDER PATENT]

Charles Parker, of Meriden, Conn., began work on the original Parker coffee mill in 1828.

A complete English coffee roasting and grinding plant was installed in New York City by James Wild in 1833-34.

About 1840, Central America began making s.h.i.+pments of coffee to the United States.

James Carter, of Boston, was granted (1846) a United States patent on an improved form of cylindrical coffee roaster, which subsequently was largely adopted by the trade in the United States, being popularly known as the Carter "pull-out".

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARTER'S PULL-OUT ROASTER PATENT]

The Geo. L. Squier Manufacturing Co. of Buffalo began in 1857 the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery. Marcus Mason invented his first pulper in 1860; but the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery under the firm name of Marcus Mason & Co. did not begin in the United States until 1873.

The first paper-bag factory in the United States to make bags for loose coffee, began operations in Brooklyn in 1862.

The first ground-coffee package was put on the New York market about 1860-63 by Lewis A. Osborn. It was known as...o...b..rn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee and was later exploited by Thomas Reid as...o...b..rn's Old Government Java.

In 1864, Jabez Burns was granted a patent on the Burns roaster which was to revolutionize the coffee-roasting business.

In 1865, John Arbuckle brought out in Pittsburgh the first roasted coffee in individual packages "like peanuts", the forerunner of the Ariosa package.

In 1869, B.G. Arnold started the first big speculation in coffee and for ten years thereafter he was absolute dictator of the American coffee trade.

In 1869, three United States patents on a copper coffee urn lined with block tin were granted to elie Moneuse and L. Duparquet of New York.

In 1870, John Gulick Baker, one of the founders of the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania, was granted a United States patent on a coffee grinder which subsequently became one of the most popular store mills.

The first trade mark registered for coffee or coffee essence bears the number 425, with date August 22, 1871, first use 1870, and is in the name of Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio. The words "essence of coffee" appeared on the label. The next coffee mark was registered by Butler, Earhart & Co., October 3, 1871, number 455, first use, 1870. It consists of the word "Buckeye" with a branch of the buckeye (horse-chestnut) tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST REGISTERED TRADE MARK FOR COFFEE, 1871]

The next registration for coffee was in the name of John Ashcroft of Brooklyn. It is numbered 533, and the date is November 28, 1871. It consists of an anchor and chain enclosing a star. Ashcroft registered also a design of a coffee pot with the words "Mocha Steam", January 2, 1872.

Today there are nearly three thousand registered trade-mark names used for coffee on file in the United States Patent Office in Was.h.i.+ngton.

In 1873, Ariosa, the first successful national brand of package coffee, was launched in Pittsburg by John Arbuckle.

In the same year, 1873, the first United States patent on a coffee subst.i.tute was issued to E. Dugdale of Griffin, Ga.

In 1878, Chase & Sanborn, the Boston coffee roasters, were the first to pack and to s.h.i.+p roasted coffee in sealed cans. A lead seal was used for the large packages of bulk coffee; the smaller sizes being sealed by the label, which was made to cover the body of the can and to reach up over the slip cover, so as to make a sealed package, to open which the label must be broken.

In 1878, Jabez Burns, the coffee-machinery man, founded the _Spice Mill_, the first publication in America devoted to the coffee and spice trades.

In 1879, Charles Halstead brought out the first metal coffee pot with a china interior.

In 1880, Henry E. Smyser, of Philadelphia, invented a package-making-and-filling machine for coffee, the forerunner of the weighing-and-packing machine, the control of which later on by John Arbuckle led to the coffee-sugar war with the Havemeyers. Smyser was superintendent at the plant of the Weikel & Smith Spice Company, Philadelphia. Other patents on weighing and package-making machines were granted him in 1884, 1888, and 1891. In 1892, he began to a.s.sign his patents to Arbuckle Brothers, some fifteen in all being granted him from 1892 to 1898. He died in 1899.

The year 1880 was notable for the many failures in the American coffee trade, as a result of syndicate planting and speculative buying of coffees in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America.

In 1881, Steele & Price, of Chicago, were the first to introduce to the trade all-paper cans, made of strawboard, for coffee.

In 1881, the New York Coffee Exchange was incorporated, beginning business the year following at Beaver and Pearl Streets. In 1885, the property of the Exchange was transferred to the Coffee Exchange of the City of New York, incorporated by special charter.

In 1884, the Chicago Liquid Sack Company brought out the first combination paper and tin-end containers for coffee.

The year 1887-88 was marked by a big boom in coffee, the total sales on the Coffee Exchange amounting to 47,868,750 bags. Between July 1886 and June 1887 prices advanced 1,485 points.

In 1888, the Engelberg Huller Company of Syracuse, New York, began the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ORIGINAL ARBUCKLE COFFEE PACKAGES]

In 1891, the New England Automatic Weighing Machine Company, Boston, Ma.s.s. began the manufacture of machines to weigh coffee into cartons and other packages; and in 1894, installed in the Chase & Sanborn plant at Boston the first automatic weighing machine in the coffee trade. The New England concern was subsequently (1901) succeeded by the Automatic Weighing Machine Company of Newark, N.J.

In 1893, the first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America (Tupholme's English machine) was installed by F.T. Holmes at the plant of the Potter-Parlin Company, New York.

In 1893, Cirilo Mingo, of New Orleans, was granted a United States patent on a method of aging green coffee to give it the characteristics of green coffee stored in a confined s.p.a.ce for a long period. The operation consisted in placing layers of green coffee between dry and wet empty coffee bags, and permitting the beans to absorb eight to ten percent of the moisture in a period extending from six to sixteen hours.

This was one of the earliest efforts to mature and age green coffee in the United States.

In 1894, the business of the Pneumatic Scale Corporation, Norfolk Downs, Ma.s.s., had its start in Quincy, Ma.s.s. where the first pneumatic weighing machine was installed by the Purity Dried Fruits Cleansing Company. In 1895, the Electric Scale Company was organized to build the machines, the subsequent development of this line of packaging machinery for coffee being directed by the Pneumatic Scale Corporation, Ltd., which succeeded it.

In 1895, Adolph Kraut introduced the German-made grease-proof lined paper bags for coffee to the American coffee trade. That same year, Thomas M. Royal, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture in the United States of a fancy duplex-lined paper bag for coffee.