Coffee Percolator
Maker and role
Louis Wiener, Inventor
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Object detail
Accession number
1965.289
Maker
Description
Beaten copper coffee percolator. Hourglass shaped body with rounded belly and cone shaped lid at top. Wooden handle with trigger extending from side. Tap at front. At the bottom, "PATD NO 9621 / L. W. RD NO 312440 / 37" is engraved. Percolator sits on tripod with rounded top tray and ring at bottom to hold beaten copper burner with conical fixture at top and handle protruding from side. "8" engraved on bottom.
Brief History
This coffee percolator, likely dating to the first decades of the 1900s, uses steam pressure to brew coffee. Various versions of coffee percolators with spirit burners such as this were manufactured from the mid-1800s. The design was later adapted for use on a stove top, before further adaptation introduced an electric element into the base, allowing the percolator to be used in rooms other than the kitchen.
The principle underlying coffee percolators is the use of a heat source to boil water creating steam, the pressure of which then forces water through ground coffee. In this example, the water would drip back down through the ground coffee, sitting on a filter above the water level, ready to be dispensed from the tap near the base. It also features a whistle at the top.
The principle underlying coffee percolators is the use of a heat source to boil water creating steam, the pressure of which then forces water through ground coffee. In this example, the water would drip back down through the ground coffee, sitting on a filter above the water level, ready to be dispensed from the tap near the base. It also features a whistle at the top.
Marks
PATD NO 9621 / L. W. RD NO 312440 / 37 Engraved
8 Engraved
8 Engraved
Media/Materials
Credit Line
Louis Wiener. Coffee Percolator, 1965.289. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
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