1870, Delphine, Sr., of Marourme, France, was granted a French patent
on a tubular coffee roaster which turned over a flame.

In the sixties and seventies, French inventors became quite active on
coffee-roaster improvements. Many patents were granted, and quite a few
were for practical small-capacity machines that have survived, and are
in use today in France and on the continent. Some supplied inspiration
for inventors in neighboring countries. Among the more notable names,
mention should be made of Martin, of St. Quentin, who produced a
sheet-iron cylinder roaster with "interior gatherer" in 1860; Marchand,
of Paris, "fan roaster with movable fire box," 1866 and 1869; Lauzaune,
Paris, "rocking system of roasting coffee in a round stove," 1873;
Ittel's glass sphere, Lyons, 1874; and Marchand and Hignette, Paris,
1877, a ball coffee roaster.

_Evolution of the Gas Roaster_

According to the patent records, Roure, of Marseilles, appears to have
produced the original gas coffee roaster in 1877. The evolution of the
gas roasting-machine was as follows:

In 1879, H. Faulder, of Stockport, England, obtained an English patent
on an external air-blast burner applied to a cylinder gas machine, which
is still being manufactured by the Grocers Engineering and Whitmee,
Ltd., of London. Fleury and Barker, of London, followed with another
English gas machine in 1880, the heat being supplied from gas jets over
the roasting cylinder. In 1881, Peter Pearson, of Manchester, produced a
gas roaster which consisted of a wire-gauze cylinder revolving under a
metal plate heated by gas.

[Illustration: ORIGINAL ENTERPRISE MILL]

Beeston Tupholme, of London, was granted an English patent in 1887, on a
direct-flame gas roaster which he assigned to Joseph Baker & Sons.

Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, took out his first patent on
the Henneman direct-flame gas roaster in Spain in 1888; and the
following year, he obtained patents in Belgium, France, and England. His
United States patents were granted in 1893-95.

Postulart secured a patent in France for a gas coffee roaster in 1888.

The Germans also began, in the eighties, to take the quick gas coffee
roaster seriously. In 1889, Carl Alexander Otto, of Dresden, secured a
German patent on a spiral tubular machine to roast coffee in three and a
half minutes. It was first manufactured and sold by Max Thurmer, of
Dresden, in 1891-93.

[Illustration: MAX THURMER'S QUICK GAS ROA