Wigomat
The Wigomat is the world's first filter coffee machine and was patented in Germany in 1954. It was named "Wi-Go-mat" after the entrepreneur Gottlob Widmann , although some early copies were still delivered as "FK-1" (for filter coffee machines).
Coffee was either hand brewed or made in a percolator until the late 1950s . In neither of these two cases was the optimal brewing temperature given. Therefore, when the Wigomat was launched, not only the "automatic" was advertised with the quality of the coffee: "Good coffee, best coffee, coffee from the Wigomat" .
The machine was sold in the BeNeLux countries and France by the coffee roaster Douwe Egberts and in Switzerland by Solis , soon afterwards automatic filter coffee preparation became the standard worldwide. In the competition (from the 1970s) the Wigomat asserted itself as one of the best machines: "The people at Zabar's tell us that their Wigomat Coffee Maker, is one of the best of the currently popular instant-drip coffeemakers." wrote a New York magazine in 1975. The strategy of arming oneself with constant technical innovations against the decline in prices and quality in the coffee machine sector made the Wigomat inevitably a niche product. At the same time, the extremely simplified cheap devices of the competition harmed the product filter coffee in general.
As milestones in the history of design and technology, older specimens are now sought-after collector's items or are exhibited in museums.
Working principle
The infusion process that is still common today is used with the Wigomat. Water is heated and poured in a steady flow over the filter filled with ground coffee. From there, the finished coffee drips into a glass jug that is placed on a hot plate. A special feature of the Wigomat is the exact brewing temperature of 94–95 ° C. Since then, this has also been considered ideal, provided the coffee is not prepared under pressure.
In contrast to today's filter coffee machines , the Wigomat works almost silently. It has two separate heating elements for conveying the water with a continuously operating vapor bubble pump and for the hotplate.
A check valve is used in today's machines to reduce the overall height and to save a heating element. The water is no longer pumped continuously, but periodically. This and the evaporation of residual water on the hotplate cause the rustling typical of today's machines.
Web links
- A homage to the first filter coffee machine in the world ( Memento from June 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- Everyday cultures portal: coffee machine
Individual evidence
- ↑ Constanze Fiebach: 60 years of the Federal Republic of Germany - an everyday cultural review