Feeding the caffeine addiction

Today I realized that it's bad.  I wasn't able to walk to school with my standard, single cup of coffee because after I had poured the creamer in my travel mug, little chunks of spoiled cream rose to the top.  I dumped my freshly made cup of coffee into the sink and ran out the door because I was already for class.  There is always free, freshly brewed coffee at school that I knew I could get a hold of at some point once I got there, but it's not ideal because there's never any creamer around or there's never any sugar.  I need some of both to make my coffee work.  


Since I was late, however, I had to go straight to class without getting a cup of coffee.  We have breaks only every hour and a half of our six-hour Ethics class, so I was counting down the minutes until we had a break so that I could run downstairs.  My close friend, Nick, was down by the coffee makers by the time I got there, and I was scrambling.  There were no mugs, so I was frantically opening every cabinet and slamming it to go on to the next in hopes of finding something, anything that even remotely resembled or served the same function as a mug.  While crawling on the floor and fumbling through cabinets, I explain to Nick that I have to have my one cup of coffee.  It's not a big deal or anything, I'll just have a splitting headache if I don't have the one cup.  Oh, and even though I have to have cream and sugar with my coffee, I don't really care if I find it today or not - I didn't have my coffee before I left the apartment.  I'll drink it no matter what's in it or not in it.  I'll drink it if it's cold.  


By this point I was most likely shaking and had possibly developed a slight tick in my neck and face.  Nick gently asked, "You know what that is, right?" I smartly replied, "Yes, it's an addiction.  I know."  (Translation: "Back off.  I'm seriously considering jumping you for the mug of coffee that you hold in your hands.")  I genuinely felt embarrassed by my desperation.


Then when I got home today, I found this beautiful piece of functional art:

Image found here.

This is a coffee maker.  A Chemex coffee maker to be exact.  You may remember a familiar discovery of mine from a couple of months back that was another example of caffeinated art.  I.want.this.one.too.

    The Chemex® coffeemaker was invented by Peter J. Schlumbohm, Ph.D., in 1941.  Schlumbohm was born in Kiel, Germany in 1896.  He received his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Berlin.  After several trips to the United States, he settled in New York City in 1936.  Over the years, he invented over 3,000 items for which he was granted patents.  However, his coffeemaker and carafe kettles were his most long enduring inventions.

     Being a doctor of Chemistry, he was very familiar with laboratory apparatus and the methods of filtration and extraction.  He applied this knowledge when designing his coffeemaker.  He examined his laboratory glass funnel and his Erlenmeyer flask and made modifications to each.  He modified the laboratory funnel by adding an "air channel" and a pouring spout.  He added the "air channel" so the air displaced by the liquid dripping into the vessel could easily escape past the laboratory filter paper, which was to be used in the funnel as the filter media.

     To the well of the Erlenmeyer flask he added a protrusion, which looks like a bubble.  Consumers have often called it a "belly button."  This is a measuring mark, which indicates one half the volume that is below the bottom edge of the handle.

     He then combined the modified glass funnel with the modified Erlenmeyer flask to create a one-piece drip coffee maker to be made of heat proof, laboratory grade, borosilicate glass.  Last, he added a wood handle and called the item a "Chemex®," which was a fabricated name.  All that was needed then to brew the coffee was the coffee, hot water, and filter paper.

     Schlumbohm designed the water kettle, or carafe kettle, three years later.  His goal was to create an attractive yet simple and fabulous vessel.  Again he chose heatproof borosilicate glass as the material.  He designed a boiling kettle which has no lid, but which is nevertheless almost completely enclosed.  The "steam stopper" prevents the steam from coming into contact with the upper portion of the neck.  Thus, this portion remains cool and is used as the handle.

     Over the years, these items have been recognized as outstanding examples of American Design.  In 1956, the coffeemaker was selected by the Illinois Institute of Technology as one of the best-designed items of modern times and it was the only coffeemaker so designated.  The coffeemaker and the water kettle are in the permanent collections of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian, the Philadelphia Museum and the Corning Museum located in Corning, NY.  The coffeemaker completed a traveling exhibition tour of a number of countries in eastern Europe as part of the "United States Information Agency's Design in America Exhibition."  In the fall of 1989, it toured with the "Design, USA" exhibition to the former USSR.

You know, as a kid (not that I'm a grown-up by any stretch of the imagination), I had a knack for collecting things.  One might say I had a collection of collections (humor me, please).  A few examples: collections of keychains, stickers, rocks (boxes and boxes full), "Garfield stuff" (yes, the fat, orange cat), and "Got Milk?" ads.  Now that I'm a mature adult, I wish I had more collections of things.  We've started a collection of rocks and sea glass - they come from various places that we visit or walks that we want to remember.  I love this collection.  But, I think I want to collect coffee materials too - different coffee makers, especially.  This one is at the top of my list.


My birthday is coming up.  Not-subtle-whatsoever-hint-hint.