IMPROVEMENTS IN THE VESSELS AND FILTERS USED FOR MAKING INFUSIONS OF COFFEE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Carey, of 48, Bessborough Street, Pimlico,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
VESSELS AND FILTERS USED FOR MAKING INFUSIONS OF COFFEE AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 18th November 1856, and dated the 17th July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Carey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th July 1856.
I, CHARLES CAREY, of 48, Bessborough Street, Pimlico, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE VESSELS AND FILTERS USED FOR MAKING INFUSIONS OF COFFEE AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in arranging vessels and filters for making infusions
of coffee and other substances, in the following manner :-There is an outer
pot of porcelain or other material, into which an open frame fits, and over this
frame a bag of muslin or other fabric is drawn. The infusion is made by
placing the ground coffee or other substance in the bag, which is placed in the
pot, boiling water is then poured on the coffee or other substance, and allowed

page_text: to stand for a short time; afterwards the bag is lifted out of the pot, and the
pot is covered by a perforated cover or strainer, which supports the bag while
it drains, and when all the fluid removed with the bag has run back into the
pot, the infusion is ready for use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Carey in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th January 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
CAREY, of 48, Bessborough Street, Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles
Carey, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Carey, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Carey, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE VESSELS AND
FILTERS USED FOR MAKING INFUSIONS OF COFFEE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Carey, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Carey, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in arranging vessels and filters for making infusions
of coffee and other substances, in the following manner:-There is an outer

page_text: pot of porcelain or other material, into which an open frame fits, and over this
frame a bag of muslin or other fabric is drawn. The infusion is made by
placing the ground coffee or other substance in the bag, which is placed in the
pot; boiling water is then poured on the coffee or other substance, and allowed
to stand for a short time; afterwards the bag is lifted out of the pot, and the
pot is covered by a perforated cover or strainer, which supports the bag while
it drains, and when all the fluid removed with the bag has run back into the
pot, the infusion is ready for use.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows an elevation of a pot of porcelain or other suitable material;
Figure 2 shews a section thereof; and Figure 3 shows another section, the
internal frame and filter having been raised out of the pot and placed on a
perforated frame or support (which fits the top of the pot), in order to drain off
the remaining fluid. The form of the pot shewn is that which is preferred,
though its shape may be varied; but it is preferred that the interior should be
cylindrical or nearly so. a, a, is a frame, suitable for receiving thereon a bag b
of muslin or other suitable filtering fabric; this bag 6 may be readily removed
from and placed on the frame a, and it is important that such frame should be
as open as may be, using as little metal as possible, in order that the bag b
may be kept distended thereby, and yet interfere but little with the fluid
coming in contact with the whole surface of the interior of the bag. And it
is important that the bag b may as nearly as may be fit the interior of the pot,
and descend to or nearly to the bottom, so as in fact to constitute a lining,
leaving as little space below the filter bag b as can conveniently be done.
The object of this apparatus not being as heretofore to filter the water through
the coffee or other matter placed in a filter, but to obtain an infusion, as if no
filter were present, by allowing as much of the water as possible which is put
into the pot remaining in contact with the coffee or other matter in the pot,
till the infusion is poured off, or the filter with its frame b is raised out of the
pot, as shown at Figure 3.
In using this apparatus, the filter b being in its place in the pot, a quantity
of ground coffee or other matter is to be placed in the pot, the desired quantity
of boiling water is then to be poured into the pot and the cover c placed
thereon. After allowing the whole to stand for a short time, the extract may
be poured out from the pot at the spout without removing the filter, or the
filter may be first lifted out of the pot; and when using large pots, the filter

page_text: may be placed on a perforated frame d, to allow time for the remaining fluid
to drain off in smaller pots; this is not found desirable. By this arrangement
it will be understood that that objectionable mode of obtaining extracts, hereto-
fore practised, is got rid of, which consists of filtering successive quantities of
boiling water through the same quantity of coffee or other matter placed in a
filter, and mixing the several extracts below the filter; such objectionable
practice having resulted from the use of filters which descend comparatively
only a short distance into, and occupy but comparatively a small portion of the
interior of the pots with which the filters have been used; whereas, in the
present arrangement, the apparatus is made suitable for the whole of the water
required, being at once poured into the pot, as above explained, the filter
forming a lining to the pot in which the infusion is made, and only acts as a
filter when pouring out the extract or when removing the filter from the pot.
The infusion being made by the water poured into the pot remaining in contact
with the coffee or matter therein, in place of passing through the filter into the
space below the filter as heretofore.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Carey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
CHAS CAREY. (L.S.)