Coffee filter
Melitta Bentz’s paper filter holder of 1908 – coffee without grounds and without bitterness.
Around 1900 coffee was often boiled in a pot, and the grounds made it bitter. Melitta Bentz in Dresden put a sheet of paper from her son’s exercise book in a brass pot with holes in the base and poured the coffee through.
She obtained protection for the invention in 1908 and started a company. The conical filter holder and filter sizes became standard, and filter coffee replaced boiled coffee across much of northern Europe.
Materials: Brass, later porcelain and plastic; filter paper
Manufacture: The first holder was a brass pot with holes in the base; later holders were pressed in porcelain and plastic.
Holes or slits in the base of the holder.
Conical holders ribbed inside (from the 1930s) so the coffee runs evenly.
Melitta’s name and size number (for example 102) on the holder.