It is accepted that a Scottish naval engineer named Robert Napier invented the vacuum coffee brewer in 1840. The principle of a Napier coffeemaker is simple. Water is heated in a boiling vessel, which is sealed except for a pipe. The pipe passes from the base of the boiling vessel into the bottom of a coffee-brewing vessel via a filter. The heating process creates steam pressure which forces hot water through the pipe and into the brewing vessel where the ground coffee has been placed. When the heat is removed from the boiling vessel, the steam condenses and creates a vacuum which pulls the freshly brewed coffee back into the bottom vessel. The result is a boiling vessel full of perfectly filtered coffee brewed at the optimum temperature of just below boiling point. The advantage of this process is that the coffee can never be burned, since the heat is never directly applied to it but transferred via the boiling water. A remarkable example of this principle was designed mid last century by Abram Games. Games was a graphic designer who crafted fascinating posters and pamphlets in post-war London. His motto was maximum meaning, minimum means –no question somebody with that mantra could only produce great work. His Cona Rex coffee brewer displaces the traditional vertical positioning of the two vessels into a more dynamic diagonal setup. The object may seem fragile in terms of its operability, but who wouldn’t have it in her/his kitchen.
