PERFORATED VESSEL, PERCOLATOR, AND FRAME FOR MAKING OR PREPARING POTABLE COFFEE
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, DAVID
THOMAS, of Featherstone Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
sends greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth
day of May, in the forty-eighth of His reign, give and grant unto the
said David Thomas, his executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that he, the said David Thomas,
his executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, his new
invented "PERFORATED VESSEL, PERCOLATOR, AND FRAME FOR MAKING OR PREPARING
POTABLE COFFEE," within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said David Thomas, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, should in his or their discretion seem meet; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if the said David Thomas
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should
utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by. the said recited

page_text: Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, he, the said
David Thomas, doth by this present instrument in writing under his hand and
seal, declare that the nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the
the same is to be performed, is particularly described and ascertained in manner
following (that is to say) :-
The said Invention consists of a perforated urn (or vessel of various form), a
percolator, and a frame, which may be used collectively in a portable form, or
separately, if that form should not be preferred. The principal part of the
machine is an urn (or vessel furnished with a cock for drawing off its contents),
rendered effective by the means hereafter described. This urn is the receiver or
receptacle of the beverage which is prepared from the material, coffee, by means
of hot or boiling water made to pass through it. The contents of the receiver
will therefore be in a potable state. In order to render this urn effective, since
filtration into a close vessel would soon be impeded and stopped by the com-
pressed air, a number of small perforations or flues are made in the upper part
of the urn. These are calculated to release the confined and rarified air, being
open while the percolation is going on, and so contrived that they are covered
at the same time and with the same cover as the large aperture or mouth of
the urn, upon the removal of the percolator. By these means the urn becomes
a close vessel when the percolation is completed, from which neither the finer
qualities or essence of the coffee, nor its heat, can escape by evaporation.
The next part of the Invention is the percolator, or small box which con-
tains and confines the material, coffee, (in its ground or pulverized state) within
itself, and prevents its rising and mingling with the water when poured into
the cylinder. The percolator may be united to or detached from a cylinder or
barrel that receives the water, as occasions may require. The percolator (with
its contents) becomes the medium through which the water passes into the urn,
where it assumes the character of potable coffee. This appendage (the perco-
lator) is furnished with a cover (pierced throughout with very small holes),
which is fitted to it, either independently of the cylinder, or fixed to the latter,
in that part which is contiguous to the percolator. In either case its office is
the same, namely, to confine the coffee so as to prevent any portion of the
water from passing into the receiver but through the whole mass.
of the percolator is peirced or bored in the same way as its cover.
above mentioned is a tube superadded to the urn and percolator, and it may be
regarded as a part of the latter. This hollow ves-el may be constructed in a
prismatic or in a cylindrical form, the latter, as it conforms to the present shape
The bottom
The cylinder

page_text: of the percolator, has been preferred. The frame or stand is calculated to
elevate and support at a proper height for drawing off its contents. A vessel dis-
charged by means of a cock when not constructed in the common form of urns,
whether adapted to this or any other purpose. It serves also to inclose the
vessel and its appendages when they are made in the portable form, and to
protect them from injury. It is calculated besides for being occasionally fixed
to the table or plane upon which it is placed, and for the reception of a lamp.
The Patentee reserves to himself the exclusive right of modifying and varying
the application of these principles, inventions, and improvements, according to
circumstances, in such manner as may best suit the form of the vessel or its
appendages, as well in respect to the flues or perforations as to the percolator
and frame, whether affecting their respective forms or situation.
In witness whereof, the said David Thomas hath hereunto set his hand
and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eight
DAVID THOMAS. (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of June,
in the forty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said David Thomas came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument. aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and eight.