Supervision of the advertising in the United States was delegated to five men, representing both the importing and roasting branches of the trade, and designated as the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee of the United States. Three of these committeemen, Ross W. Weir, of New York; F.J. Ach, of Dayton, Ohio; and George S. Wright, of Boston, are roasters; and two, William Bayne, Jr., and C.H. Stoffregen, both of New York, are importers and jobbers, or green-coffee men. The committee organized with Mr. Weir as chairman, Mr. Wright as treasurer, and Mr. Stoffregen as secretary. At the invitation of the committee, C.W. Brand of Cleveland, then president of the National Coffee Roasters Association, attended committee meetings, and assisted in determining the policies of the campaign. Headquarters were established at 74 Wall Street, in the heart of the New York coffee district, with Felix Coste as secretary-manager, and Allan P. Ames as publicity director. N.W. Ayer & Son, advertising agents of Philadelphia, who had engineered the plan of campaign from the start of the movement in the National Coffee Roasters Association, handle the advertising account.
São Paulo's contribution to the advertising fund is sent in monthly instalments to the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee under an agreement that it shall be expended only for magazine and newspaper space.
Supplementing this Brazilian contribution, is the fund raised by voluntary subscriptions from the coffee trade of the United States on the basis of one cent per bag handled annually. This American fund is used for the expenses of administration, for educational advertising outside of magazine and newspaper space, and for various kinds of trade promotion and dealer stimulation.
The first advertising appeared in April, 1919, in 306 leading newspapers in 182 large cities, with a total circulation of more than 16,000,000. The cities chosen represented all the centers of wholesale coffee distribution.
Magazine advertising began in June of the same year, using twenty-one periodicals, all of national circulation. This list has been changed from time to time to meet the special needs of the campaign.
More than fifty grocery-trade magazines have carried the committee's dealer advertising, although not all of these have been used continuously. Every part of the country was represented on the trade-paper list.
Full pages have been run each month in nine of the leading national medical journals. These advertisements were written by a physician of national reputation. Under the caption, "The Case for Coffee," these advertisements have discussed the properties of coffee from the physiological standpoint, and have asked the doctors to judge it fairly.
From the start the committee's advertising has been broadly educational. The properties of coffee have been discussed; charges against coffee have been answered. The housekeeper has been told how to get the best results from the coffee she buys; hotel and restaurant proprietors have been reminded that many of them owe their prosperity largely to a reputation for serving good coffee; new uses have been exploited for coffee, as a flavoring agent for desserts and other sweets; employers have been taught the important service good coffee may render in increasing the comfort and efficiency of their working forces.
Magazine and newspaper advertising is only the nucleus of the campaign. The effect of such "white space" publicity is increased by simultaneous efforts to "merchandise" the campaign, to stimulate the interest of the wholesale and retail trade, to encourage private-brand advertising, and to reach the consumer by other kinds of publicity recognized as essential factors in a well rounded national advertising effort. These activities may be summarized as follows:
Information Service. This department answers inquiries and supplies material for household editors, and for newspaper and magazine writers. Through a national clipping service, it keeps in touch with all published matter relating to coffee. Its special duty is to answer attacks on coffee and the coffee trade. Merchants and dealers make it a practise, when they find misleading articles or editorials in their local newspapers, to send clippings to the committee's headquarters to be handled there as the situation warrants.
Scientific Coffee Research. Twenty-two thousand, five hundred dollars of the American fund have been appropriated thus far for scientific coffee research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The reports of this research will be distributed to the coffee trade throughout the country, and should prove valuable in all branches of coffee merchandising. The findings will be distributed by the committee to schools and colleges, and to consumers through national advertising.
The Coffee Club. This organization was established for the purpose of educating the consumer through constructive team work by the roasters' and jobbers' salesman and the retail dealer. Under this plan, the committee has distributed 50,000 transparent signs for dealers' windows, and 5,000 bronze coffee-club buttons for coffee salesmen. By reference to the Coffee Club in national magazine and newspaper advertising, the retailer is given a chance to tie up with the campaign. Membership in the club is limited to those who are contributing to the publicity fund, and to their salesmen and customers. The club publishes a monthly bulletin in newspaper form, giving the news of the campaign. This has a circulation of 27,000 among wholesalers, salesman, and dealers.
Booklets. The committee has published six booklets, which have reached a total circulation of more than one and a half million copies. These booklets are sold at cost to the coffee trade. The committee reports that, on an average, one hundred requests for them are received daily at its office from consumers in different parts of the country, and that the booklets are the means of a constant campaign of education in American homes and schools.
Brand Advertising. The committee is constantly making efforts to increase the amount of private advertising by coffee roasters, and it estimates that brand advertising has increased at least three hundred percent since the national campaign began. Reproductions of the committee's advertisements, proofs of advertising electrotypes, and copy suggestions are circulated in advance to all roasters and to a large number of retailers, by means of the monthly organ, The Coffee Club.
Coffee Week. During the week of March 29 to April 4, 1920, the committee organized and financed the third national coffee week, which was observed by retailers throughout the country. The feature of this week was a window-trimming contest for which prizes of $2,000 were distributed among several hundred grocers. The contest resulted in displays of coffee in nearly 10,000 grocery windows, and greatly increased the sale and consumption of coffee during this period.
Motion Pictures. The United States fund financed the production and distribution of a coffee motion picture, 128 prints of which were sold to roasters, who exhibited them throughout the country. This picture was shown during coffee week to more than six hundred theater audiences, and it remains in the possession of the trade as an active advertising medium.
New Uses for Coffee. An important factor in increasing consumption has been the promotion of new uses for coffee. In winter, this has taken the form or recipes and suggestions for coffee as a flavoring agent; and in warm weather, there has been a publicity drive for iced coffee.
Propaganda Results
The joint coffee trade publicity campaign is progressive. New features are being developed, and plans are laid well in advance. It is expected that the reports of the scientific research will furnish fresh material for both direct and indirect advertising.
One of the interesting prospects is a school exhibit, demand for which has been revealed by requests from a large number of teachers, principals, and school superintendents. Efforts to increase the popularity of a product as widely used as coffee suggest almost unlimited opportunities.
The campaign has brought into co-operation producers in one country, and manufacturers and distributers in another country, several thousand miles apart. Its international character, and also the fact that it deals with a product of almost universal use, may account for the attention this campaign has received, not only in the United States, but in every country where advertising is a business factor.
This kind of coffee publicity has given the consumer a better knowledge of coffee, and broken down much of the prejudice against coffee that rested upon popular misunderstanding of its physiological effects.
As best evidence of its sincere wish to give the public the whole truth about coffee, the committee points to the fact that a portion of its funds is being used to finance the scientific investigation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Felix Coste, the secretary-manager of the campaign, spends much of his time traveling about the country and addressing gatherings of coffee wholesalers and dealers. By this means, and by continuous circularization and correspondence, the trade is kept constantly in touch with the developments of the campaign.
Although Brazil is the only coffee-producing country at present co-operating, the advertising has treated all coffees alike. Efforts are being made to have the coffee growers of other countries contribute on a basis proportionate to the benefit they derive. Support from all the coffee countries on the same scale as that on which the producers of São Paulo are contributing would almost double the size of the fund.
Coffee Advertising Efficiency
Reverting to the original advertisement for coffee in English, when we compare it with the latest examples of advertising art, it is of the same order of merit. But Pasqua Rosée had no advertising experts to advise him and no precedents to follow. Pasqua Rosée was a native of Smyrna, who was brought to London by a Mr. Edwards, a dealer in Turkish merchandise, to whom he acted as a sort of personal servant. One of his principal duties was the preparation of Mr. Edwards' morning drink of Turkish coffee.
"But the novelty thereof," history tells us, "drawing too much company to him, he [Mr. Edwards] allowed his said servant, with another of his son-in-law, to sell it publicly." So it came about that Pasqua Rosée set up a coffee house in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill.
And since Pasqua Rosée's idea, naturally, was to acquaint the London public with the virtues and delectable qualities of the product of which his prospective customers were naturally uniformed, he put into his advertisement those facts and arguments which he felt would be most likely to attract attention, to excite interest, and to convince. If the reader will glance at Rosée's advertisement, which is reproduced on page 55, he will be struck with the well-nigh irresistible charm of his unaffected, straightforward bid for patronage. Having no advertising fetishes to warp his judgment, he told an interesting story in a natural manner, carrying conviction. It matters not that some of the virtues attributed to the drink have since been disallowed. He believed them to be true. Few there were in those days who knew the real "truth about coffee."
Even his typography, unstudied from the standpoint of modern "display," is attractive, appropriate, and exceedingly pleasant to the eye. And since at that time there was no cereal substitute or other bugaboos to contend against, and to hinder him from doing the simple, obvious thing in advertising, he did that very thing—and did it exceedingly well.
PACKAGE-COFFEE ADVERTISING IN 1922
Specimens of newspaper copy used by some of the most enterprising package-coffee advertisers, East and West
In fact, in the historic advertisement, Pasqua Rosée set an example and established a copy standard which had a very beneficial effect on all the coffee advertising of that early date. This will be evident from a glance at the accompanying exhibits of other early advertisements. It was not until the days of so-called "modern" advertising that coffee publicity reached low-water mark in efficiency and value. In these dark days most coffee advertisers ignored the principles discovered and applied in other lines of grocery merchandising. Instead of telling their public how good their product was, they actually followed the opposite course, and warned the public against the dangers of coffee drinking! Instead of saying to the public, "Coffee has many virtues, and our brand is one of the best examples," their text said in effect, "Coffee has many deleterious properties; some, or most, of which have been eliminated in our particular brand."
They were, for the most part, apostles of negation.
Hopeful signs, however, are multiplying that this condition of things in the coffee industry has passed, and that the practise of telling the coffee story with certitude will soon become general.
We may well applaud the publicity work of all coffee advertisers who follow where Pasqua Rosée led—those who tell the public how good coffee is to drink and how much good it does you if you drink it. Considering the advertising and typographical resources available to the modern advertiser, it certainly should be possible for this message to be conveyed to the public with at least some of the charm of the first coffee message.
One of the most notable examples of how to advertise coffee well is that set by Yuban coffee. Unquestionably, Yuban is doing in a thoroughly up-to-date and appropriate fashion what Pasqua Rosée started out to do in 1652.
The effect on those who give only a superficial glance at a Yuban advertisement is to arouse a keen desire to enjoy a cup of Yuban coffee. To induce such a state of mind is, of course, the object of all good advertising.
An Electric Sign that Impressed Chicago
There were 4,000 bulbs in this advertisement, which measured 50 x 55 feet. The rental was $3,500 a month
Yuban advertisements have utilized two vital principles in influencing the minds of consumers. In the first place, they have made a cup of coffee seem to be a very delectable drink. In the second place, they have made the serving of a cup of coffee seem to be of the greatest social value.
One does not see in a Yuban advertisement any reference to the "removal of caffein", or to Yuban's "freedom from defects common to other coffees." There is no reference to the ill effects of drinking ordinary coffee. Yuban wastes no valuable space in unselling coffee. Instead, the whole intent, effectively carried out, is to paint an enticing picture by descriptive phraseology, typographic "manner", and illustrative treatment.
Until Yuban came, those of us in the coffee trade who had given the matter thought had often wondered why, with the wealth of material available to writers of coffee advertisements, so little had been done to make the product alluring—why so little had been done to give atmosphere to the product. So many interesting things may be said about the history of coffee; the spread of the industry through various countries; how Brazil came to be the coffee-producing country of the world; how coffee is cultivated, harvested, and shipped; how it is stored, roasted, handled, delivered—in short, the entire process by which coffee reaches the breakfast table from the plantations of the tropics. Yuban made effective use of this material.
Simply to tell these things in an interesting, natural, convincing way makes coffee appear as a healthful, delicious drink; whereas the negative, defensive sort of advertising, that plays into the hands of the substitutes, puts coffee in the wrong light.
When one reads Yuban advertisements, they are seen to be an entirely acceptable and appropriate presentation of coffee merit and thoroughly in accord with the principles of good advertising, as exemplified in all other lines of trade. The wonder grows why so many coffee advertisers have been content to remain in the defensive, controversial position into which the alarmist coffee-substitute advertising has jockeyed them.
The Yuban advertisements are not without their faults; errors of historical facts can be found in them; definitions are sometimes mixed; some of the drawings might be better; but, in the main, the copy is convincing and praiseworthy.
In Yuban advertisements the things that have been so long left undone have now been done in a masterful way. If we refer to the accompanying illustrations, we can see how effectively the public is being led to realize and believe in:
1. The intrinsic desirability of coffee—the actual pleasure to be derived from the act of partaking of it.
2. That it is delightful medium for social intercourse—part of the essential equipment for an intimate chat or more general assemblage of friends.
3. That its proper service is a badge of social distinction—the mark of a successful hostess.
These three thoughts, dominant in Yuban advertising, should be woven into the fabric of all coffee advertising. For with these three thoughts, Arbuckle Brothers have blazed the trail for the right thing in coffee advertising.
The Yuban case has been so largely dwelt upon here because it sets so bright and shining an example. Much that is praiseworthy in it and more along the same lines is true of White House, Hotel Astor, and Seal Brand; but the copy shown will illustrate this better than any comment.
The absence of visible wheels aroused much curiosity in this slow-moving vehicle
COENTIES SLIP, NEW YORK, IN THE DAYS OF SAILING VESSELS
Many coffee ships from the West Indies, Arabia and the Dutch East Indies unloaded their cargoes here—From a copper-plate etching by F. Lee Hunter
Chapter XXIX
THE COFFEE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES
The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston—Some early sales—Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace—The first coffee plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and coffee-pot patents—Early trade marks for coffee—Beginnings of the coffee urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee business—Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the trade from the eighteenth century to the twentieth
It appears from the best evidence obtainable that the coffee trade of the United States was started by a woman, one Dorothy Jones of Boston. At least, Dorothy Jones was the first person in the colonies to whom a license was issued, in 1670, to sell coffee. It is not clear whether she sold the product in the green bean, roasted, "garbled" (ground), or "ungarbled".
Soon after the introduction of the coffee drink into the New England, New York, and Pennsylvania colonies, trading began in the raw product. William Penn bought his green coffee supplies in the New York market in 1683, paying for them at the rate of $4.68 a pound. Benjamin Franklin engaged in the retail coffee business in Philadelphia, in 1740, as a kind of side line to his printing business.
"Tea, coffee, indigo, nutmegs, sugar etc." were being advertised for sale in 1748 at a shop in Boston, "under the vendue-room in Dock-Square." Coffee was also to be had in that year at the shop of Ebenezer Lowell in King Street, and at the Sign of the Four Sugar Loaves near the head of Long Wharf.
During the sway of the coffee houses, coffee fell from $4.68 a pound to 40 cents a pound in 1750, and to 22 cents a pound just before the Revolution. As the war came on, however, dealers began to force up prices on a dwindling market. The situation became so serious that in January, 1776, the Philadelphia Commission of Inspection issued a fair-price list, setting an arbitrary price of eleven pence per pound on coffee in bag lots. Persons found violating this price were to be "exposed to public view as sordid vultures preying on the vitals of the country."
Despite this threat, J. Peters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, wrote to a Philadelphia friend, "I cannot purchase any coffee without taking, too, one bill a tierce of Claret & Sour, and at £6.8 per gall.... I have been trying day for day, & never could get a grain of Coffee so as to sell it at the limited price these six weeks. It may be bought, but at 25/ per lb."
The important part played by the coffee houses of colonial America, beginning with the establishment of the London coffee house in Boston, in 1689, the King's Arms in New York in 1696, and Ye coffee house in Philadelphia in 1700, has been related.
"Females" of ye olde Boston, staging in 1777 a "coffee party" which rivaled in a small way the famous Tea Party in 1773, personally chastised a profiteer hoarder of foodstuffs, and confiscated some of his stock, according to a letter from Abigail Adams to her distinguished husband, later second president of the United States.
Writing at Boston, under date of July 31, 1777, Abigail wrote to John, then attending the Continental Congress at Philadelphia:
There is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, articles which the female part of the state is very loath to give up, especially whilst they consider the great scarcity occasioned by the merchants having secreted a large quantity. It is rumored that an eminent stingy merchant, who is a bachelor, had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused to sell under 6 shillings per pound.
A number of females—some say a hundred, some say more—assembled with a cart and trunk, marched down to the warehouse, and demanded the keys.
Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys, and they then opened the warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put it into a trunk, and drove off. A large concourse of men stood amazed, silent spectators of the whole transaction.
In 1783–84 the Congress of the United States considered the imposition of a duty on "seven classes of goods consumed by the rich or in general use; liquors, sugars, teas, coffees, cocoa, molasses 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 Massachusetts 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 principal 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 advertisement 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 Washington's household account book for 1793 appears an entry showing a purchase of coffee from Benjamin Dorsay, a Philadelphia grocer, for eight dollars. The quantity is not given.
About 1804 Captain Joseph Ropes in the ship Recovery, of Salem, Mass., 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, Mass., per ship 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 association, 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.
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 shipments 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".
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 Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee and was later exploited by Thomas Reid as Osborn'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 Élie 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.
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 Washington.
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 substitute was issued to E. Dugdale of Griffin, Ga.
In 1878, Chase & Sanborn, the Boston coffee roasters, were the first to pack and to ship 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 assign 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.
In 1891, the New England Automatic Weighing Machine Company, Boston, Mass. 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 space 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, Mass., had its start in Quincy, Mass. 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.
In 1896, natural gas was first used in the United States as a fuel for roasting coffee.
In 1897, Joseph Lambert, Vermont, first introduced to the coffee trade a self-contained coffee roasting outfit without the brick setting required until then.
In 1897, the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania was the first regularly to employ an electric motor to drive a coffee mill.
The overproduction of coffee began to be so serious a question by 1898, that J.D. Olavarria, a distinguished Venzuelan, proposed a plan for the restriction of coffee cultivation and the regulation of coffee exports from countries suffering from overproduction. In this same year, the bears forced Rio 7's down to four and one-half cents on the New York Coffee Exchange.
In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, was granted a United States patent on a vacuum process for canning foods, subsequently applied to coffee. Others followed. Hills Brothers, of San Francisco, were the first to pack coffee in a vacuum, under the Norton patents, in 1900. M.J. Brandenstein & Company, of San Francisco, began to pack coffee in vacuum cans in 1914. Vacuum sealing machines to pack coffee under the Norton patents are now made by the Perfect Vacuum Canning Company of New York.
About 1899, Dr. Sartori Kato of Tokio, who had invented a soluble tea in Japan, came to Chicago and produced a soluble coffee (introduced to the consumer in 1901) on which he was granted a patent in 1903. In 1906, G. Washington of New York, an American chemist living in Guatemala City, produced a refined soluble coffee which was put on the United States market three years later. The full story of soluble coffee in America is told in chapter XXXI. (See page 538.)
The first gear-driven electric coffee mill was introduced to the trade by the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania in 1900.
In 1901, there appeared in New York the first issue of The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, devoted to the interests of the tea and coffee trades.
In 1900–01, Santos permanently displaced Rio as the world's largest source of supply.
In 1901, the American Can Company began the manufacture and sale of tin coffee cans in the United States. In this year Landers, Frary & Clark's Universal coffee percolator was granted a United States patent; and Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., brought out one of the earliest machines to employ gas as a fuel for the indirect roasting of coffee. It was in 1901, also, that F.T. Holmes joined the Huntley Manufacturing Company, of Silver Creek, N.Y., which began to build the Monitor gas-fired direct-flame coffee roasters.
In 1902, the Coles Manufacturing Company (Braun Company, successor) and Henry Troemner, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture and sale of gear-driven electric coffee grinders.
As a result of the agitation for some way to deal with the overproduction of coffee, the Pan-American Congress, meeting in Mexico City in 1902, called an international coffee congress for New York in the fall of that same year. It met from October 1 to October 30; but at the close, the problem seemed no nearer solution than at the beginning. In 1906, Brazil produced its record-breaking crop of 20,000,000 bags, and the state of São Paulo inaugurated a plan to valorize coffee.
In 1902, the first fancy duplex paper bag made by machinery from a roll of paper was produced by the Union Bag & Paper Corporation. It was of sulphite fiber inside, and glassine outside; a style afterward reversed, so as to have the glassine the inner tube.
In 1902, the Jagenberg Machine Company, Inc. (absorbed by the Pneumatic Scale Corporation in 1921) began the introduction to the trade of the United States of a line of German-made automatic packaging-and-labeling machines for coffee. Subsequently, the Johnson Automatic Sealer Company, Battle Creek, Mich., became well known as manufacturers of a line of automatic adjustable carton-sealing, wax-wrapping machines, package conveyors, and automatic scales. Among other automatic weighers that have figured in the development of the coffee business, mention should be made of The National Packaging Machinery Company's Scott machine, of E.D. Anderson's Triumph, and of Hoepner's Unit System.
In 1903, as a result of overproduction in Brazil, Santos 4's dropped to three and fifty-five hundredths cents on the New York Coffee Exchange, the lowest price ever recorded for coffee.
In 1903, also, there was granted the first United States patent on an electric coffee-roaster, the patentee being George C. Lester of New York.
In 1904, green coffee prices on the New York Coffee Exchange were forced up to eleven and eighty-five hundredths cents by a speculative clique led by D.J. Sully.
In 1905, the A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo, N. Y. (now of Hornell, N.Y.) began the sale of its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers on the instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling coffee mills through hardware jobbers.
In 1905, F.A. Cauchois introduced to the trade his Private Estate coffee maker, a filtration device employing Japanese filter paper. Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, obtained a patent the same year on a side-perforation percolator employing "porous or bibulous paper" as a filtering medium.
In 1906, H.D. Kelly, of Kansas City, was granted a United States patent on an urn coffee machine employing a coffee extractor in which the ground coffee was continually agitated before percolation by a vacuum process.
In 1907, P.E. Edtbauer (Mrs. E. Edtbauer), of Chicago, was granted a United States patent on a duplex automatic weighing machine, the first simple, fast, accurate and moderate-priced machine for weighing coffee. Eight others followed up to 1920.
In 1907, the new Pure Food and Drugs Act came into force in the United States, making it obligatory to label all coffees correctly and causing many trade practises to be altered or thrown into the discard. The most important rulings that followed are referred to in more detail in chapter XXIII, telling how green coffees are bought and sold.
In 1908, the Porto Rico coffee planters, presented a memorial to the Congress asking for a protective tariff of six cents a pound on all foreign coffees. Hawaii and the Philippines, also were to have benefited by the protection asked for. The Congress failed to grant the planters' prayer. This appeal for protection was repeated in 1921, when the Congress was asked to place a duty of five cents a pound on all foreign coffees.
In 1908, J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek, Mich. was granted a United States patent on a corrugated cylinder improvement for a gas and coal coffee roaster of fifty to one hundred and thirty pounds capacity designed for retail stores. This machine was acquired the year following by the A.J. Deer Company, and was re-introduced to the trade as the Royal roaster.
In 1908, Brazil's valorization-of-coffee enterprise was saved from disaster by a combination of bankers and the Brazil Government. A loan of $75,000,000 was placed, through Hermann Sielcken of New York, with banking houses in England, Germany, France, Belgium, and America. The complete story of this undertaking is told in chapter XXXI.
In 1909, Ludwig Roselius brought to America from Germany the caffein-free coffee which for several years had been manufactured and sold in Bremen under the Myer, Roselius, and Wimmer patent. In 1910, the product was first sold here by Merck & Company under the name of Dekafa, later Dekofa, and in 1914, by the Kaffee Hag Corporation as Kaffee Hag.
In 1911 all-fiber parchment-lined Damptite cans for coffee were introduced to the trade by the American Can Company.
As a result of preliminary meetings of Mississippi Valley coffee roasters held in St. Louis in May and June, 1911, when the Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association was organized, a national association under the same name was started in Chicago, November 16–17, 1911. The complete story of the growth of this most important coffee trade organization in the United States is told in the next chapter.
In 1912, the United States government, after having examined into the valorization enterprise, brought suit against Hermann Sielcken, et al., to force the sale of valorized coffee stocks held in this country under the valorization agreement.
In October, 1914, the first national coffee week to advertise coffee was promoted by the National Coffee Roasters Association.
Merchants Coffee House Memorial
On May 23, 1914, the Lower Wall Street Business Men's Association unveiled a bronze memorial tablet set in the wall of the nine-story office building occupied by the Federal Refining Company on the southeast corner of Wall and Water Streets, the former site of the Merchants' coffee house. This is the building where The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal had its offices for nine years before moving to 79 Wall Street.