of New Haven on a mill "for grinding and pounding coffee."
This was followed by a patent granted to Increase Wilson, of New London,
in 1818, on a steel mill for grinding coffee.

[Illustration: PEWTER POTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Left to right, they are German, Flemish, English, and Dutch specimens in
the Metropolitan Museum]

[Illustration: PATENT DRAWINGS OF EARLY FRENCH COFFEE MAKERS

Left, drip pot of 1806--Next two, Durant's inner-tube pot, 1827--Next
(fourth), Gandais' first practicable percolator, 1827--Right, Grandin &
Crepeaux' percolator, 1832]

In 1815, Archibald Kenrich was granted a patent in England on "mills for
grinding coffee."

The coffee biggin, said to have been invented by a Mr. Biggin, came into
common use in England for making coffee about 1817. It was usually an
earthenware pot. At first it had in the upper part a metal strainer like
the French drip pots. Suspended from the rim in later models there was a
flannel or muslin bag to hold the ground coffee, through which the
boiling water was poured, the bag serving as a filter. The idea was an
adaptation of the French fustian infusion bag of 1711, and of other
early French drip and filtration devices, and it attained great
popularity. Any coffee pot with such a bag fitted into its mouth came to
be spoken of as a coffee biggin. Later, there was evolved the metal pot
with a wire strainer substituted for the cloth bag. The coffee biggin
still retains its popularity in England.

[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH FILTRATION DEVICES

Left, Casseneuve's filter-paper machine, 1824--Center, Gaudet's
cloth-filter pot, 1820--Right, Raparlier's percolator]

While French inventors were busy with coffee makers, English and
American inventors were studying means to improve the roasting of the
beans. Peregrine Williamson, of Baltimore, was granted the first patent
in the United States for an improvement on a coffee roaster in 1820. In
1824, Richard Evans was granted a patent in England for a commercial
method of roasting coffee, comprising a cylindrical sheet-iron roaster
fitted with improved flanges for mixing; a hollow tube and trier for
sampling coffee while roasting; and a means for turning the roaster
completely over to empty it.

The next year, 1825, the first coffee-pot patent in the United States
was granted to Lewis Martelley of New York. It marked the first American
attempt to perfect an arrangement to condense the steam and t