"Universal" Coffee Maker
date: label: date made
content: ca 1937
name: label: maker
content: Landers, Frary & Clark
notes: label: Description
content: Art deco style vacuum coffee maker. Glass body (B & C), double-bulb-shaped. Lower pot (B) has out-turned handle, molded plastic, cream-colored, with thumb rest at top, attached with screws to metal gasket that encircles top lip of pitcher. Lower pot has out-turned lip and spout (opposite handle) at top, molded glass, three decorative silver bands around bottom of pitcher body, which has a detachable metal base (A), chrome-plated, circular, semi-sphere with flattened circular base, three triangular cream-colored feet. Base is streamlined. Two arched pieces of metal with molded plastic (cream-colored) handles on either side of base, architectural detail molded into plastic handles. Interior of half-sphere has white molded ceramic heating element with metal coils, attached to two-pronged plug on exterior. Metal, chrome-plated lid (D), circular, concave top, molded plastic knob, cream-colored, with ribbed flange edge to sit over lip of upper “brew pot” (C), which has same silver line decoration as lower pot (B). Upper pot has molded glass rod that is inserted into hole in center, bottom, marked: “CORNING ROD/U.S. PAT. 1927287/U.S. PAT. 1931076”, and is cracked at top. Upper pot is held on top of lower pot with white rubber gasket attached to long hollow glass pike at bottom, which is inserted into the lower pot. Bottom of base has attached circular metal plate, printed: “PATENTS PENDING/D-106778/PAT. NO. 2067470/UNIVERSAL/WATTS 550 VOLTS 110/120/ NO. 228/LANDERS,FRARY, & CLARK/NEW BRITAIN, CONN./U.S.A.”
label: Description
content: May be missing a metal wire strainer, based on a marked patent (2067470).
label: Description
content: Patents:
label: Description
content: 1927287, Sep 19, 1933, Raymond W Kell and Charles D Barth, for “Coffee maker”
label: Description
content: 1931076, Oct 17, 1933, Raymond W. Kell and Charles D. Barth, assignors to Macbeth-Evans Glass Company, Charleroi, Pennsylvania, for “Coffee maker”
label: Description
content: D-106778, Nov 2, 1937, Oscar M. Anderson, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Connecticut, for “Design for a coffee maker”
label: Description
content: 2067470, Jan 12, 1937, Oscar M. Anderson, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Connecticut, for “Strainer for percolators”
label: Description
content: Maker is Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Connecticut (circa 1862). In the 1890s, took on the name “Universal”, in 1965 General Electric acquired the company.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, New Britain
topic: label: Subject
content: Household Tools and Equipment
label: Subject
content: Beverages
label: Subject
content: Coffee Drinking
label: Subject
content: Patented
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0113.2
label: accession number
content: 1988.0113
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0113.2
objectType: label: Object Name
content: maker, coffee
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (base material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 5/8 in x 9 1/4 in x 6 in; 37.1475 cm x 23.495 cm x 15.24 cm