The first modern percolator incorporating the

rising of boiling water through a tube to form a continuous cycle and capable of
being heated on a kitchen stove was invented in 1819 by the Parisian tinsmith
Joseph-Henry-Marie Laurens.[3] Its principle was then often copied and
modified. There were also attempts to produce closed systems, in other words
"pressure cookers".
The first US patent for a coffee percolator was
issued to James Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts, in 1865, U.S. patent 51,741.
This mechanism did not use the conventional percolation method as described
above.
An Illinois farmer named Hanson Goodrich
patented the modern U.S. stove-top percolator as it is known today, and he
was granted U.S. patent 408,707 on 13 August 1889. It had the key elements of
a conventional percolator: the broad base for boiling, the upflow central tube
and a perforated basket hanging on it. Goodrich's design could transform any
standard coffee pot of the day into a stove-top percolator. Subsequent patents
have added very little.
Electric percolators have been in production
since at least the first decade of the 20th Century with General Electric,
Schenectady, New York, publishing a 6 - page pamphlet titled "Coffee Making
By Electricity" in 1905. Automatic percolators have been available since the
1940s or earlier.
Usage
[edit]
Large percolators, called coffee urns, are often
found in use at offices, cafeterias, community events, church gatherings and
other large group activities where large quantities of coffee are needed at one
time.
Percolators are also popular among campers and
other nature enthusiasts because of their ability to make coffee without
electricity, although a simple filter holder can also be used with boiled
water poured from a pot. Non-pressure percolators may also be used
with paper filters.
Improvements
[edit]
The method for making coffee in a percolator
had changed very little since the introduction of the electric percolator in the
early part of the 20th century. However, in 1970 commercially available
"ground coffee filter rings" were introduced to the market. The coffee filter
rings were designed for use in percolators, and each ring contained a pre-
measured amount of coffee grounds that were sealed in a self-contained paper
filter. The sealed rings resembled the shape of a doughnut, and the small hole
in the middle of the ring enabled the coffee filter ring to be placed in the metal
percolator basket around the protruding convection (percolator) tube.
Prior to the introduction of pre-measured self-
contained ground coffee filter rings, fresh coffee grounds were measured out in
scoopsful and placed into the metal percolator basket. This process enabled
small amounts of coffee grounds to leak into the fresh coffee. Additionally, the
process left wet grounds in the percolator basket. The benefit of the pre-
packed coffee filter rings was two-fold: First, because the amount of coffee
contained in the rings was pre-measured, it negated the need to measure each
scoop and then place it in the metal percolator basket. Second, the filter paper
was strong enough to hold all the coffee grounds within the sealed paper. After
use, the coffee filter ring could be easily removed from the basket and
discarded. This relieved the consumer from the task of cleaning out the wet
coffee grounds from the percolator basket.