IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS FOR MAKING COFFEE, TEA, AND OTHER INFUSIONS.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Holmes Bass, of No. 6, Featherstone Street,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN VESSELS
FOR MAKING COFFEE, TEA, AND OTHER INFUSIONS.“
"
Sealed the 24th January 1871, and dated the 16th November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Holmes Bass at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th November 1870.
I, JOHN HOLMES BASS, of No. 6, Featherstone Street, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN VESSELS FOR MAKING COFFEE, TEA, AND OTHER INFUSIONS," to be
as follows:_
•
This Invention has for its object improvements in vessels for making
coffee, tea, and other infusions. The body of the vessel I make by
preference cylindrical, and within it there is a loosely fitting bucket
having a handle or stem rising from it through a hole in the cover of
the pot. By means of the handle the bucket can be worked up and
down within the vessel. The bucket is made in two parts capable of

page_text: being separated, they receive between them the ground coffee or other
material of which an infusion is to be made and they shut together like
a box so as to enclose it. The top and bottom of this box-like bucket
are of wire gauze or other material which will allow liquid to flow
freely through but will retain the ground coffee, tea, or other material.
The coffee or material to be infused having been placed in the lower
half of the bucket the upper half is placed over it and secured, and a
suitable quantity of boiling water is poured into the pot. The bucket
is now worked gently up and down within the pot by means of its handle
or stem passing through the hole in the lid, this motion causes the
boiling water to be forced in a current to and fro through the bucket
and through the loose coffee, tea, or other material which it contains.
This current is met by another current passing between the sides of the
bucket and the cylindrical body of the pot. By these means an agitation
is produced which ensures the rapid extraction of the soluble parts of
the coffee or other matter under treatment.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Holmes Bass in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th May 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HOLMES BASS; of No, G, Featherstone Street, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Holmes Bass, Her special
license, that I, the said John Holmes Bass, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Holmes Bass, 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 VESSELS FOR MAKING COFFEE, Tea, and other INFUSIONS," upon the condition

page_text: (amongst others) that I, the said John Holmes Bass, 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 Scal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Holmes Bass, 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 has for its object " Improvements in Vessels for Making
Coffee, Tea, and other Infusions. The body of the vessel I make by
preference cylindrical, and within it there is a loosely fitting bucket
having a handle or stem rising from it through a hole in the cover of
the pot.
By means of the handle the bucket can be worked up and
down within the vessel. The bucket is made in two parts capable of
being separated, they receive between them the ground coffee or other
material of which an infusion is to be made, and they shut together
like a box so as to enclose it. The top and bottom of this box-like
bucket are of wire gauze or other material which will allow liquid to
flow freely through, but will retain the ground coffee, tea, or other
material. The coffee or material to be infused having been placed in the
lower half of the bucket the upper half is placed over it and secured,
and a suitable quantity of boiling water is poured into the pot. The
bucket is now worked with moderate force up and down within the pot
by means of its handle or stem passing through the hole in the lid, this
motion causes the boiling water to be forced in a current to and fro
through the bucket and through the loose coffee, tea, or other material
which it contains. This current is met by another current passing
between the sides of the bucket and the cylindrical body of the pot.
By these means an agitation is produced which ensures the rapid
extraction of the soluble parts of the coffee or other matter under
treatment.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect. I will proceed to describe the Drawings

page_text: Figure 1 is a vertical section of a vessel constructed according to my
Invention, and adapted for making coffee or other infusion.
a, a, is a pot provided with a handle and spout like an ordinary coffee
pot, or, if preferred, it may be of an urn-like form and fitted with a tap
in lieu of a spout; b is the lid or cover of the pot, it has a hole at its
centre for the passage of the stem or handle of the bucket; b¹ is a
flange or dished ring which serves as the handle of the lid, and also,
if required, for holding the pot steady when the bucket is worked up and
down. That it may not get hot it is not soldered to the lid but held
only by the ferrule 63, which serves as the guide for the handle of the
bucket and is soldered at the under side of the lid, if necessary, with the
intervention of a wooden collar between the dished ring and the lid.
The bucket consists of two parts c and d. The part c is a short cylinder
or vessel with a perforated bottom c¹, it receives within it the coffee or
other matter of which an infusion is to be made and the coffee is thus
enclosed (as it were in a box) by placing over it the perforated cover d'.
The upper part d of the bucket is united and locked to the lower part c
by three or more hooks d* slightly inclined below, forming with the ring
around the top of the lower part c a bayonet joint. The upper part d of
the bucket carries the stem or handle d² united to it by the arch d³.
To make the interval between the vessel c and d, and the interior of the
pot a smaller I attach a ring to the exterior of the bucket at e which
leaves a space between itself and the inside of the pot at that part of
about the thickness of a card or less. The stem or handle d' has a
feather upon it at d²*, and there is a corresponding notch in the furrule b³.
When the bucket is raised to the full extent this feather is clear of the
notch in the ferrule, and then on turning the stem or handle of the
bucket the feather finds a bearing on the ferrule and the bucket is held
suspended. There is a pin or stop d' which prevents the bucket rising
too high. The stem is tipped with wood or other non-conducting
material. To make the infusion the coffee or other material being
placed in the bucket between the two perforated plates as already
described boiling water is poured in until the pot is as full as may be
desired, the cover is put on, the spout is stopped by a plug provided for
the purpose, and the bucket is then worked up and down, at each down
stroke a portion of the liquid is forced up through or amongst the coffee
or material within the bucket whilst another portion of the liquid passes
up the outside of the bucket and re-enters it by flowing over its upper
edge. At the up stroke the liquid descends through the material in the

page_text: bucket and partly through the space between the bucket and the pot
and thus fills the space beneath. After the bucket has thus been
worked up and down for a short time it is suspended by twisting the
stem a little round and lodging the corner of the feather on the edge of
the key way in the ferrule, whereby the infusion is filtered and is ready
almost immediately to be poured out or drawn off. The plug in the spout
being removed, as an alternate arrangement, the feather in the stem and
notch in the ferrule may be dispensed with by placing the regulating
ring or flange shewn at e at or near the bottom of the bucket. When no
suspension of the bucket is required the entrance to the spout in the
outlet vessel is made in this case sufficiently high up to allow room for
working the bucket up and down. The external vessel may be of any
convenient shape.
The apparatus may be made of large size for making infusions on a
large scale, and in such cases a lever may be applied to work the bucket.
The perforations in the top and bottom of the bucket should be
adapted to the material to be infused, being small enough to retain the
material without unnecessarily impeding the flow of the liquid. The
apparatus, especially when of large size, may sometimes be employed
with advantage to dissolve or wash out impurities from materials
requiring such treatment.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim,
the construction of vessels for making coffee, tea, and other infusions,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Holmes Bass, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.