October 3 in 1899 the Motorized Vacuum Cleaner was Patented

Today October 3 in 1899 the Motorized Vacuum Cleaner was Patented

By definition, "a vacuum cleaner (also called a vacuum or hoover or a sweeper) is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors."



The first attempts to provide a mechanical solution to floor cleaning were begun in England in 1599. Before vacuum cleaners, rugs were hung over a wall or line and hit repeatedly with a carpet beater to pound out as much dirt as possible.






On June 8, 1869, Chicago inventor, Ives McGaffey patented a "sweeping machine". This was the first patent for a device that cleaned rugs, however, it was not a motorized vacuum cleaner. McGaffey called his machine the Whirlwind and it was the first hand-pumped vacuum cleaner in the United States, a wood and canvas contraption.






John Thurman - Door to Door Service






John Thurman started a horse-drawn vacuum system with door to door service in St Louis. His vacuuming services were priced at $4 per visit in 1903. He invented his gasoline-powered vacuum cleaner in 1899 and some historians consider it the first motorized vacuum cleaner. Thurman's machine was patented on October 3, 1899 (patent #634,042).


Hubert Cecil Booth






British engineer, Hubert Cecil Booth patented a motorized vacuum cleaner on August 30, 1901. Booth's machine took the form of a large, horse-drawn, petrol-driven unit, which was parked outside the building to be cleaned with long hoses being fed through the windows. Booth first demonstrated his vacuuming device in a restaurant that same year and successfully sucked dirt.


More Americans inventors introduced variations of the same cleaning-by-suction type contraptions. For example, Corinne Dufour invented a device that sucked dust into a wet sponge; and, David Kenney designed a huge machine that was installed in a cellar and connected to a network of pipes leading to each room of a house.






Of course, these early versions of vacuum cleaners were bulky, noisy, smelly, and unsuccessful.






Handheld Units - James Spangler






In 1907, James Spangler, a janitor in a Canton, Ohio department store, deduced that the carpet sweeper he was using was the source of his chronic coughing.


Spangler tinkered with an old fan motor and attached it to a soap box stapled to a broom handle. Using a pillow case as a dust collector, Spangler invented a new portable and electric vacuum cleaner. He then improved his basic model the first to use both a cloth filter bag and cleaning attachments, and received a patent in 1908.






Hoover Vacuum Cleaners






James Spangler soon formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. One of his first buyers was his cousin, whose husband, William Hoover became the founder and president of the Hoover Company, a vacuum cleaner manufacturer. James Spangler sold his patent rights to, and continue to design for, William Hoover.


William Hoover financed additional improvements to Spangler's vacuum cleaner. The Hoover design resembled a bagpipe attached to a cake box, but it worked. William Hoover's company produced the first commercial bag-on-a-stick upright vacuum cleaner. Initial sluggish sales were given a kick by Hoover's innovative 10 day, free home trial, and eventually there was a Hoover vacuum cleaner in nearly every home. By 1919, Hoover cleaners were widely manufactured complete with the "beater bar" to establish the time honoured slogan "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans".






Filter Bags






The Air-way Sanitizor Company which began in Toledo, Ohio in 1920, introduced a new product, the "filter fiber" disposable bag - an important cleaning "first".

Scondrels and Scalawags..The Word wants to be receved.

Scoundrels and Scalawags



“The World Wants to be Deceived”— German proverb






What is it about stunning scoundrels like Bernie Madoff, and Newport’s own Madoff wannabe Eizabeth C. (Liza) Baldwin, that makes them appear so…well, harmless?






Like Madoff, Baldwin convinced her investors in her Ponzi scheme, called The Newportant Group, that she could get them 50% returns on their money, and that they were in a select group that was smarter than the rest of mankind, exploiting an age-old weakness of our species.



Madoff wannabe Eizabeth C. (Liza) Baldwin



Photo by Billy Black






Liza used to be seen lunching at Yesterday’s, a bistro-style restaurant on Washington Square, where she waved happily to passers-by. She lived then in the Point section of Newport, and dated a local recovering alcoholic who, for most of the relationship, was able to navigate Newport only on a bicycle, and , it is said, wanted sex at the exact same hour each day. There were others before that. Her earlier life in New York City was marred by a divorce from an Episcopal priest, who was rector of St. Bernard's in Bernardsville/Far Hills, NJ, and served as interim rector of Trinity Church


in Newport, who informed her that he was gay.






Then suddenly she appeared at the exclusive Carnegie Abbey Club in 2005 at an awards party for the Newport Bucket, a prestigious yacht race, as owner of a 65-foot yacht, the Van Ki Pass. NewportSeen columnist Linda Phillips remembers noting at the party that her circumstances had certainly changed, but, as did her hapless investors in Newport and in Virginia Beach, attributed it to her stellar performance of her fund.






Wrong.






Madoff’s only putative influence on Newport could have been the sudden bankruptcy of the Touro Synagogue foundation, which funds the ongoing work and current construction at Touro Synagogue, the country’s oldest. While it was denied by officers of the Foundation that it was invested with Madoff, it is still suspected in the closing for the winter of the august institution to visitors (since reopened for summer months). And the timing was perfect. The John L. Loeb center, a distinguished addition to the site, will open on schedule this summer, as well.






Now 63 years old, Elizabeth Baldwin was known as a sociable divorcée and wealthy commodities trader who spent the high days of summer racing her yacht in Newport, the Caribbean, and in Europe, joining a privileged set and enjoying the spoils of her scheme. As in the brilliant short story by Willa Cather, “Paul’s’ Case,” the anti-heroine of this tale grabbed the golden ring, knowing all was unsustainable, but willing to go for it all -- for a moment. The moment has passed, as Baldwin, free on bail for the last year, has been indicted on 142 counts of defrauding investors of nearly $8 million. Court documents state: "Profits reported to the investors were false," quoted the Providence Journal. Arrested by Rhode Island state police, brought into court May 6, she is now out on $100,000 bail. She has pled not guilty, citing illness, anxiety disorder and "a catastrophic trading loss of $4 million." The trial will begin in July, with a pretrial hearing held on June 8. The trial will be watched, and commented on, by Newport Seen. At this writing, her assets, including the status symbol Van Ki Pass yacht, are being dispersed by the court.






Baldwin is being called a “socialite” in local and national media. She is not, and never was, a socialite by Newport’s standards: those set by Mrs. Caroline Astor and rival Mrs. William K. (Alva) Vanderbilt, and carried on by the wonderful Helen Winslow, Mrs. John (Eileen) Slocum, “Oatsie” Charles, Dorrance (Dodo) Hamilton, and other great Newport ladies and philanthropists.






As the astute columnist Cindy Adams said in a recent New York Post column: “Madoff And Baldwin: soulmates, possibly cellmates?” That would be a divine revenge for their victims.

Blaise Pascal Inventions

Blaise Pascal Inventions









Have you ever heard of a child prodigy? Many of these prodigies are well-known for their achievements in such things as music or the arts but it is also possible for a child prodigy to show unusual achievements in the areas of mathematics. This is the case with Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, philosopher and physicist that lived during the 17th century. Some of his inventions were so far ahead of their time that the concepts are still used today, although they have been improved on over the years. Here are a few Blaise Pascal inventions that you may or may not have heard of.






Since this man was both an inventor and a mathematician, one of his most notable achievements was that of an early calculator. As a matter of fact, this is probably one of the best-known of the Blaise Pascal inventions that are in existence. Known as a Pascaline, it was the second such calculator that was developed. He had a lot of commercial success with this particular calculator and it came in both decimal and non-decimal versions.






Another of the Blaise Pascal inventions that you may be familiar with is the syringe. Although it is not something that we necessarily enjoy getting, every time we receive a shot that is to our benefit we have this man to thank. Actually, the entire concept for the syringe came about as a result of Pascal's principal which states, a change in the pressure of an enclosed incompressible fluid is conveyed undiminished to every part of the fluid and to the surfaces of its container.






Blaise Pascal also used the same concept in order to help invent a hydraulic press. This is one of the Blaise Pascal inventions that is still being used today. Although it was not used in that particular way during his time, the entire concept was rather interesting and although it was used in some ways, its widespread use was not fully realized until the 20th century.

Samuel Moprse contribution to science.

791







On April 27, Samuel Finley Breese Morse is born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of Jedidiah Morse, a Congregational minister and geographer, and Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese.


1799






Morse enters Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.


1800






Alessandro Volta of Italy creates the "voltaic pile," a battery that produces a reliable, steady current of electricity.


1805






Samuel Morse enters Yale College at age fourteen. He hears lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day. While at Yale, he earns money by painting small portraits of friends, classmates, and teachers. A profile goes for one dollar; and a miniature portrait on ivory sells for five dollars.


1810






Samuel Morse graduates from Yale College and returns to Charlestown, Massachusetts. Despite his wishes to be a painter and encouragement from the famed American painter Washington Allston, Morse's parents plan for him to be a bookseller's apprentice. He becomes a clerk for Daniel Mallory, his father's Boston book publisher.


1811






In July, Morse's parents relent and let him set sail for England with Washington Allston. He attends the Royal Academy of Arts in London and receives instruction from the famed Pennsylvania-born painter Benjamin West. In December, Morse rooms with Charles Leslie of Philadelphia, who is also studying painting. They become friends with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. While in England, Morse also befriends the American painter Charles Bird King, the American actor John Howard Payne, and the English painter Benjamin Robert Haydon.


1812






Samuel Morse models a plaster statuette of The Dying Hercules, which wins a gold medal at the Adelphi Society of Arts exhibition in London. His subsequent 6' x 8' painting of The Dying Hercules is exhibited at the Royal Academy and receives critical acclaim.


1815






In October, Samuel Morse returns to the United States and Morse opens an art studio in Boston.


1816






In search of portrait commissions to support himself, Morse travels to New Hampshire. In Concord, he meets Lucretia Pickering Walker, aged sixteen, and they are soon engaged to be married.


1817






While in Charlestown, Samuel Morse and his brother Sidney patent a flexible-piston man-powered water pump for fire engines. They demonstrate it successfully, but it is a commercial failure.


Morse spends the rest of the year painting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.






1818






On September 29, Lucretia Pickering Walker and Morse are married in Concord, New Hampshire. Morse spends the winter in Charleston, South Carolina, where he receives many portrait commissions. This is the first of four annual trips to Charleston.


1819






On September 2, Morse's first child, Susan Walker Morse, is born. The city of Charleston commissions Morse to paint a portrait of President James Monroe.


1820






The Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted discovers that electric current in a wire generates a magnetic field that can deflect a compass needle. This property will eventually be used in the design of some electromagnetic telegraph systems.


1821






While living with his family in New Haven, Morse paints such distinguished individuals as Eli Whitney, Yale president Jeremiah Day, and his neighbor Noah Webster. He also paints in Charleston and Washington, D.C.


1822






Samuel Morse invents a marble-cutting machine that can carve three dimensional sculpture in marble or stone. He discovers that it is not patentable because it infringes on an 1820 design by Thomas Blanchard.


Morse finishes an eighteen-month project to paint The House of Representatives, an oversize scene of the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. It contains more than eighty portraits of members of Congress and justices of the Supreme Court, but loses money during its public exhibition.






1823






On March 17, a second child, Charles Walker Morse, is born. Morse opens an art studio in New York City.


1825






The Marquis de Lafayette makes his last visit to the United States. The City of New York commissions Morse to paint a portrait of Lafayette for $1,000. On January 7, a third child, James Edward Finley Morse, is born. On February 7, Morse's wife, Lucretia, dies suddenly at age twenty-five. By the time he is notified and returns home to New Haven, she has already been buried. In November, artists in New York City form a drawing cooperative, the New York Drawing Association, and elect Morse president. It is run by and for artists, and its goals include art instruction.


William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet, which will be a key component of the telegraph.






1826






January in New York, Samuel Morse becomes a founder and first president of the National Academy of Design, which has been established in reaction to the conservative American Academy of Fine Arts. Morse is president on and off for nineteen years. On June 9, his father, Jedidiah Morse, dies.


1827






Morse helps launch the New York Journal of Commerce and publishes Academics of Art.


Professor James Freeman Dana of Columbia College gives a series of lectures on electricity and electromagnetism at the New York Athenaeum, where Morse also lectures. Through their friendship, Morse becomes more familiar with the properties of electricity.

Chopin, a child prodigy

Frédéric Chopin



Composition

Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father. Hailed in his homeland as a child prodigy, at age twenty Chopin left Poland forever. Young Chopin received his first piano lessons from his older sister Ludwika (Polish for “Louise”) and was subsequently taught by his mother. His musical talent was early apparent, and he gained a reputation in Warsaw as a “second Mozart.” At age seven he was already the author of two polonaises (G minor and B flat major), the first being published in the engraving workshop of Father Cybulski, director of a School of Organists and one of the few music publishers in Poland. The prodigy was featured in Warsaw newspapers, and “little Chopin” became an attraction in the capital’s aristocratic salons. He also began giving public charity concerts. He is said to once have been asked what he thought the audience liked best; the witty seven-year-old replied, “My shirt collar.” He first appeared publicly as a pianist when he was eight.

Niels Henrik David Bohr...Contribution to Physics and Chemistry.

Niels Bohr








Born Niels Henrik David Bohr


7 October 1885


Copenhagen, Denmark


Died 18 November 1962 (aged 77)


Copenhagen, Denmark




University of Manchester







Bohr model




Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1922)


Franklin Medal (1926)


Signature......

Contributions to Physics and Chemistry

The Bohr model of the atom, the theory that electrons travel in discrete orbits around the atom's nucleus.


The shell model of the atom, where the chemical properties of an element are determined by the electrons in the outermost orbit.


The correspondence principle, the basic tool of Old quantum theory.


The liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus.


Identified the isotope of uranium that was responsible for slow-neutron fission – 235U.[26]


Much work on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.


The principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analyzed as having several contradictory properties.

Cyrus Field..Keading investor in the Transatlantic Cable

The First Cable



The manufacture of the cable started in early 1857 and was completed in June. Before the end of July it was stowed on the American Niagara and the British Agamemnon -- both naval vessels lent by their respective governments for the task. They started at Valentia Harbor in Ireland (which was by then connected to the rest of the British Isles) on 5 August. For the first few days, everything went well but six days later, due to a mistake made with the brake which limited the rate of descent, the cable snapped. Just 380 miles had been laid.


The ships were forced to return to port. An extra 700 miles of cable was made for the second attempt which began on 25 June 1858. This time the same two ships met each other in mid-Atlantic where they joined their respective ends. The cable broke almost immediately. Again the two ships made another splice: this time they managed 40 miles before it broke again. The fourth time they had laid 146 miles before the cable was lost yet again. It was clear that this was not going to be easy!


The two ships returned to Ireland but it was decided that, despite the loss of a considerable amount of cable, they still had enough for a further attempt. On 29 July they made their fifth attempt, again starting from the mid point. This time it worked! On 5 August 1858 both ships reached their destinations -- Valentia Harbor in Ireland and Trinity Bay in Newfoundland. The two continents were joined.


On 16 August communication was established with the message "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will to men." Unfortunately the engineer in charge, Wildman Whitehouse, started by applying very high voltages rather than the very weak currents that had been tested during the cable laying. Within three weeks the damage inflicted on the cable by the high voltages was becoming apparent and it ceased to work.

Customers at the New York offices of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1866 (top); making a cable splice aboard the Great Eastern as it lays off Valencia harbor in Ireland (bottom).



The Second Cable


It took several years before another attempt was made. This time a single ship was chartered, the enormous Great Eastern, by far the largest ship of its day. She started from Valencia at the end of July 1865 and succeeded in laying 1,200 miles before the cable snapped. Several attempts were made to retrieve the broken end but they all failed.




Bringing the cable ashore at Heart’s Content. Reaching for the looped end is Samuel



Canning, Chief Engineer. The man with the binoculars is Third Time LuckyBringing the cable ashore at Heart’s Content. Reaching for the looped end is Samuel


Again more cable was manufactured for the same company which had raised a further $2,500,000. Not only did the Great Eastern carry cable enough for a complete crossing but extra cable to finish the cable that had been lost the previous year -- if the end could be found.

After so many failed attempts, the final, successful, cable was laid with virtually no problems. On 27 July 1866, the cable was pulled ashore at a tiny fishing village in Newfoundland known by the charming name of Heart’s Content. The distance was 1686 nautical miles. The Great Eastern had averaged 120 miles a day while paying out the cable.

The first message sent on this, finally successful, cable was: "A treaty of peace has been signed between Austria and Prussia". Queen Victoria, then at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, sent a message to the President of the United States. "The Queen congratulates the President on the successful completion of an undertaking which she hopes may serve as an additional bond of Union between the United States and England."

This was received in Newfoundland almost immediately but there was still a gap in the link to the mainland of North America and messages from London to New York still took 24 hours because of this gap. However, this did not concern people at the time who were amazed at the rapid news that was now possible.

Almost immediately the Great Eastern steamed east to the point that the second cable had reached and after about two weeks of trying, they found and raised the broken end. This was no mean feat as the broken cable was at a depth of 16,000 feet. The broken end was spliced and on 8 September the second completed cable was landed.

Contemporary accounts tell of the fascination of the operators that messages would actually be received hours before they were sent (due to the time zone difference at the two ends of the cable). Due to the time taken for ships to cross the Atlantic, people did not think much about the time difference -- the cable brought it home to them with a start.

Almost immediately, the cable opened for business but only the very wealthy could afford it -- the initial rates were a startling $1 a letter, payable in gold - at a time that a monthly wage for a laborer might be $20.

As with the overland cables, undersea cables were laid rapidly. Within 20 years there were 107,000 miles of undersea cables linking all parts of the world. The original two cables ceased to work in 1872 and 1877 but by this time four other cables were in operation. It is interesting to note that even though later cables could carry large numbers of signals at the same time, it was not until the 1960s that the first communication satellites offered a serious alternative to the cable.




Canning, Chief Engineer. The man with the binoculars is Cyrus W. Field, a leading


investor and motivator of the project. The Great Eastern is shown in the background.

Painting by Rex Woods, reproduced courtesy of Rogers Cantel.
 Third Time Lucky



Again more cable was manufactured for the same company which had raised a further $2,500,000. Not only did the Great Eastern carry cable enough for a complete crossing but extra cable to finish the cable that had been lost the previous year -- if the end could be found.


After so many failed attempts, the final, successful, cable was laid with virtually no problems. On 27 July 1866, the cable was pulled ashore at a tiny fishing village in Newfoundland known by the charming name of Heart’s Content. The distance was 1686 nautical miles. The Great Eastern had averaged 120 miles a day while paying out the cable.


The first message sent on this, finally successful, cable was: "A treaty of peace has been signed between Austria and Prussia". Queen Victoria, then at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, sent a message to the President of the United States. "The Queen congratulates the President on the successful completion of an undertaking which she hopes may serve as an additional bond of Union between the United States and England."


This was received in Newfoundland almost immediately but there was still a gap in the link to the mainland of North America and messages from London to New York still took 24 hours because of this gap. However, this did not concern people at the time who were amazed at the rapid news that was now possible.


Almost immediately the Great Eastern steamed east to the point that the second cable had reached and after about two weeks of trying, they found and raised the broken end. This was no mean feat as the broken cable was at a depth of 16,000 feet. The broken end was spliced and on 8 September the second completed cable was landed.


Contemporary accounts tell of the fascination of the operators that messages would actually be received hours before they were sent (due to the time zone difference at the two ends of the cable). Due to the time taken for ships to cross the Atlantic, people did not think much about the time difference -- the cable brought it home to them with a start.


Almost immediately, the cable opened for business but only the very wealthy could afford it -- the initial rates were a startling $1 a letter, payable in gold - at a time that a monthly wage for a laborer might be $20.


As with the overland cables, undersea cables were laid rapidly. Within 20 years there were 107,000 miles of undersea cables linking all parts of the world. The original two cables ceased to work in 1872 and 1877 but by this time four other cables were in operation. It is interesting to note that even though later cables could carry large numbers of signals at the same time, it was not until the 1960s that the first communication satellites offered a serious alternative to the cable.

Contribution of Sir Issac Newton to science.

Overview







Isaac Newton is considered by many to be the father of modern physics. He invented calculus, and with calculus in hand, people could now create mathematical models of changing systems. His three laws of motion and his law of gravitation, however, are still one of the first things that all physics students learn, and are the basis behind a lot of physics that is done today.






Although Newton made many very important contributions to the world of science, the most important to astronomy were his laws of motion and law of gravity.






Laws of Motion






Newton's Laws of Motion are still used by physicists all over the world. Newtonian Physics is taught in many courses at the college level, as well as high school and middle school. Everything in that genre of physics is based upon these three laws:






Every object has uniform motion unless acted upon by a force.


The force applied to an object is equal to the object's mass times the resulting acceleration:


For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.


These laws are used to describe everything from throwing a ball to the merging of galaxies. Even though it has been shown through people like Albert Einstein that Newton's Laws are really approximations, they work so well on a wide range of scales, that they are still used in lieu of the better laws. For example, you would use Newtonian Mechanics to describe the acceleration of a car, not Einstein's General Relativity.






Law of Gravity






Newton's Law of Gravity is not precise in extreme circumstances, such as very high velocities or very strong gravity. For cases such as these, Einstein's General and Special Relativity theories are needed. However, in most other cases, and especially those that we are familiar with on Earth, Newton's Law works extremely well.






It is based upon his laws of motion, and it shows how two objects exhibit a force upon the other. It is the equation to the right.






It says that the gravitational force experienced is equal to a gravitational constant times both masses divided by the distance between them squared. The value "G" is an extremely small number, and therefore the gravitational force is extremely weak - the weakest of the four fundamental forces. This law also shows that the force of gravity dies off with the square of the distance. This means that if you are twice as far away from something, then the gravitational force you experience is 1/4 as much.

Inventions of Galleo.

Introduction to Galleo



Galileo Galilei, who lived from 1564 to 1642, is considered one of the founders of modern geometry and physics. Although he developed many important scientific theories and made many critical observations of the solar system, he is not credited with many original inventions. He did contribute to many inventions and improve upon many others.

Heliocentric Model of the Solar System



One of Galileo's most famous "inventions" was his confirmation that the sun is the center of our solar system, a theory first put forward by Nicolaus Copernicus. Galileo confirmed the theory partly through his observation of the phases of the planet Venus as it reflected light from the sun while orbiting the star. This was revolutionary at the time because most of the world still believed Earth was the center of the universe. The Catholic Church arrested Galileo as a heretic for this.





The Telescope


Although the telescope was invented in 1608 by Dutchman Hans Lippershey, Galileo built his own in 1609, without ever having seen Lippershey's, and he improved it over time from 3X magnification to about 30X. He built his first telescope based on descriptions he had heard. He was the first to use a telescope to observe the heavens.






Actual Inventions


In 1597, Galileo invented a geometric compass, a scientific instrument with two arms that can be used for making calculations and geometric measurements. Galileo also is credited with inventing a microscope with two lenses at either end of a hollow tube.






Contributions to Other Inventions


Galileo also contributed to the invention of several other pieces of technology for which there is no acknowledged single inventor. For instance, in he built an early thermometer in the 1590s, which used the expansion and compression of air to lift and lower water in a tube.

Invention of the coffee filter

Coffee History: Melitta Bentz, Inventor of the Paper Filter


Of all the mad geniuses we have to thank for several centuries' worth of coffee-technology advancement, perhaps the person the vast majority of us owe the most gratitude to is a rather unlikely candidate: A housewife from Dresden, Germany. Specifically, the very enterprising (if maybe a little frumpy), apfelstrudel-baking mother of two Melitta Bentz, inventor of the paper filter.








As with most so-simple-it's-brilliant innovations, Bentz's invention was born out of irritation and annoyance. Fed up with the alternatives—such as having to constantly wring out stain-ridden cloth filters, or scrape coffee sludge off the bottom of unfiltered coffee pots—Bentz devised a simple (and, hallelujah, easily disposable!) filtration system by laying a regular old piece of paper over the perforated bottom of a brass pot. The result was a clean cup—and a relatively clean brewer, which of course would please any overextended housewife.

Within two years, she'd filed a patent on the design (formalized in 1908) and set up shop with her husband and sons, cranking out filters for caffeine-craving Germans. By the 1930s, the filter's original design had changed rather drastically, morphing from the flat-bottomed metal unit into a cone-shaped ceramic piece, with the unmistakable triangular-folded paper filter we know today.




While the company that bears Melitta's name is still a leader in drip-cone manufacturing, coffee-loving geeks, designers, and professionals all over the world have followed our gal's lead by making tweaks to Bentz's initial concept and striving for the perfect filter brew. Japanese companies like Beehouse and Bonmac are ahead of the pack, and fanatical pour-over-loving baristas will argue with blue faces about the best methods for extracting coffee using this or that brewer. ("Pour the water slowly." "No, all at once!" "It has to be added in a slow circle, moving from the middle outward, in a clockwise rotation." "No, counterclockwise!" And so on, ad nauseum.)







So the next time you blearily reach for a paper filter, anxious to get the lifeblood flowing with that first morning cup, don't forget to pour a little of the finished brew out for one solid dame we all owe a debt to: Good ol' Melitta Bentz.