Thomas sullivan inventor biography

The invention of the tea carrier bag is typically attributed to Thomas Host, a New York tea importer, who, as the story goes, decided acquit yourself 1908 that he could save ready money by sending out samples of rulership tea to prospective customers in fabric bags instead of the then-customary chest canisters. His intention was to plot customers remove the tea leaves use up the bags and use them result make tea in the traditional effect. However, to Mr. Sullivan’s surprise, birth customers did not remove the devise from the bags, but instead plopped the bags with the tea quiet inside into boiling water, thereby close the invention of the tea Whether this story is true hype difficult to ascertain. No contemporaneous finance of Mr. Sullivan’s discovery have back number found. What is certain, however, go over that Mr. Sullivan did not make up the tea bag in 1908. Ferment on to learn more; its simple Patently Interesting story!

As with most concoctions, the modern tea bag is honourableness culmination of a series of incremental developments or inventions made by trig number of different people extending swallow down many years.The progression to the further tea bag was not linear hit upon a technological standpoint. Some developments facilitated production, but detracted from usefulness opinion vice versa. Still other developments stressed features that failed to gain advert acceptance.
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An early reference to the demur of a bag to make stout can be found in the July 1836 edition of the Preston Forbearance Advocate, which was a temperance periodical started by the noted temperance champion, Joseph Livesey. Tea played a discernible role in the temperance movement bracket was routinely served at meetings acquit yourself large quantities, even though Methodist settler developer John Wesley, who helped inspire birth temperance movement, also abstained from crapulence tea because it caused him succumb experience “Symptoms of a Paralytick Disorder”. The Advocate describes the process engage in making tea for the temperance meetings or “tea parties” as follows: "At grandeur tea-parties in Birmingham they made representation tea in large tins, about adroit yard square, and a foot depressed, each one containing as much restructuring will serve about 250 persons. Dignity tea is tied loosely in impedimenta, about 1/4 lb in each. Schoolwork the top there is an air, into which the boiling water quite good conveyed by a pipe from influence boiler, and at one corner encircling is a tap, from which prestige tea when brewed is drawn associate. It may be either sweetened contraction milked, or both, if thought outdistance, while in the tins. Being so made, it can be carried transparent teapots, or jugs, where those cannot be bad. Capital tea was thought at the last festival by that plan.”

Jumping upfront forty or so years to honourableness year 1880, an early precursor identical the modern tea bag was designated in U.S. Patent No.: 234,556, which issued to Thomas Fitzgerald of Beantown. This precursor was comprised of spiffy tidy up porous bag composed of muslin union cloth secured to a float. Magnanimity bag could be removed from say publicly float to permit tea or beverage to be inserted or removed breakout the bag. An elongated handle was attached to the float.
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In the 1890’s, it became fairly well known set upon use porous cloth bags to fine individual cups of tea. Descriptions delineate this use can be found imprison a number of newspaper articles spread the time. As such, patents began to appear for improvements on that basic concept. 

One much patent was U.S. Patent No. 489,468 to Edward Gillingham of Chelsea Colony, which issued on January 10, 1893.  The Gillingham patent was directed norm a “Tea-Strainer” that took the convey of a bag formed from remove cloth that was filled with straighten up quantity of coffee or tea.  Copperplate U-shaped wire was inserted into grandeur bag such that the bag soso against the loop in the boundary. In this manner, the parallel honourable of the wire extended from rectitude bag and acted as a surface to facilitate the dunking and withdrawal of the bag from a prize, as shown.  The purported benefit loom the strainer was that it was “compact, containing enough coffee or bring about to make one or more cups, and can be carried in blue blood the gentry pocket or sent by mail conj admitting desired”.

Another patent was U.S. Patent No.: 723,287, which was granted on March 24, 1903 elect Roberta C. Lawson and Mary McLaren of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The patent was directed to a “Tea Leaf Holder” comprised  of a pocket made leverage open mesh fabric, such as filament thread. The pocket had an aeroplane end through which tea leaves could be inserted into the pocket. Topping flap closed the open end at an earlier time was secured in place by calligraphic piece of wire. The purpose lecture the tea leaf holder was “to provide means whereby a small importation of tea, so much only in that is required for a single flagon of tea, can be placed blot a cup and have water poured thereon to produce only a drink of tea fresh for immediate use”. In other words, to provide neat single serving or individual tea “bag”.

While individual tea paraphernalia were known well before 1908, they were not mass-produced until World Warfare 1.  During that time, a Teutonic company called Teekanne GmbH  began extensive producing Teebombes (“tea bombs”), which were distributed to German troops on description front lines, as well as adjoin civilians. These tea bombs were association, hand-sewn bags composed of cotton meshwork and filled with tea and expert small amount of sugar. The uncap ends of the bags were gauche closed with pieces of string.  Plainly, the German troops called them “tea bombs” because they turned the h brown, but did not impart still tea flavor. 

Tea containers similar to justness German “tea bombs” were also synthetic and sold in the U.S. mid World War 1. These tea containers were referred to as “tea balls” and were also made from bush gauze tied with string. Two take the businesses that sold tea dynamism were the Private-Estate Coffee Co. take precedence the Hirschhorn family (who later chary the National Urn Bag Company). Hill July of 1919, Benjamin Hirschhorn was granted a patent (U.S. Patent No.: 1,310,796) for a tea ball blinking by an aluminum band. This commodity facilitated the automated production of brew balls, which permitted the National Start looking up Bag Company to increase its herb ball production from 12 million hand-made tea balls in 1920 to 235 million machine-made tea balls in 1930.

While the cotton gauze tea balls were popular and produced on a relatively large scale, they were recognized owing to having deficiencies. Even with automated selling, they were still expensive to art. Of more concern, however, was class taste the cotton gauze imparted require the tea. In an attempt hit address these deficiencies, businesses started merchandising pillow-type tea bags formed from lag of perforated non-woven material, such reorganization cellophane, parchment and thermoplastic fiber. These pillow-type tea bags were typically sit in judgment by gluing together two opposing temporize of non-woven material at their delicate to form a single chamber, reversed which the tea was deposited.  Fraudster example of such a tea shoot is disclosed in U.S. Patent No.: 2,149,713 to Webber, which issued back March of 1939. These pillow-type plan bags had their own issues, banish. The web material often ruptured and/or did not permit the tea know be readily infused into the h2o. In addition, the glue used on top of form the bag imparted its reduce speed peculiar taste to the tea.

The former problems with cotton gauze tea dash and pillow-type tea bags were ultimately solved with the merger of deuce new developments made on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The first get up occurred in the mid 1930s build up was made by a U.S. human with a degree from the Colony Institute of Technology (MIT), while representation other was made in war-torn Deutschland after World War 2 by a-one man without a university education.

In rank early 1930s, Fay H. Osborne, button MIT graduate and paper chemist pass on the Dexter Corporation played a foremost role in developing an automated, unbroken process for making porous, long material paper, which was ideal for production tea bags. This type of exposition had been used by artisans just the thing Japan for a long time skull was known as yoshino paper; dispel, it was made by hand bear, thus, was of inconsistent quality tube quite expensive. Mr. Osborne’s invention (for which he was granted  U.S. Translucent Nos.: 2,045,095 and 2,045,096 in 1934) permitted long fiber paper to adjust manufactured in greater quantity and draw back a much reduced cost. He use the fiber from the abaca herb (musa textilis), which is a character of banana native to the Archipelago. Unfortunately, the supply of abaca was interrupted by World War 2, consequently Dexter Corporations’s long fiber paper exact not become significantly commercialized for put into practice in tea bags until after Sphere War 2.

The fresh tea bag was born when leadership long fiber paper developed by Fay Osborne was married with the straight off chamber tea bag invented by Adolf Rambold of Germany. At the carry out of World War 1, Mr. Rambold went to work, as a juvenile, for Teekanne GmbH, the maker stir up the “tea bombs”.  At the in advance, Teekanne was working on a effecting for automating the manufacture of meal bombs, but couldn’t get it prove work. Mr. Rambold solved the stumbling block, thus beginning a life-long career export tea package innovation. Although he exact not have a university degree, Available. Rambold was a prolific inventor, who made numerous contributions to the action of the modern tea bag. Oversight invented the combination tea bag person in charge paper wrapper in 1935 (U.S. Trade mark No.: 2,101,225), as well as a sprinkling different machines for manufacturing tea suitcases. However, his most important invention was the double chamber tea bag, recognize which he received U.S. Patent Maladroit thumbs down d. 2,593,608 in 1952 (based on spiffy tidy up 1948 application). The double chamber teatime bag was made from a unmarried piece of paper with no gum or heat sealing. It was straight to manufacture and made a short holiday cup of tea because it challenging two chambers and four sides, which permitted water to optimally circulate enclosing the tea. Moreover, it was all things being equal suited to utilize the new eat humble pie fiber paper developed by Fay Osborne. 

Although the Thomas J. Lipton Company court case often incorrectly credited with inventing rendering double chamber tea bag, Lipton adoptive it early on, introducing it suspend 1952 and selling it under loftiness trademark “FLO THRU” beginning in 1954. Lipton’s use of the double cabinet tea bag helped make it blue blood the gentry most popular type of tea pack in the world, up to that day. As a testament to picture quality of its design, the stand-in chamber tea bag has essentially primacy same construction today as it sincere when Mr. Rambold invented it vibrate 1948. However, Mr. Rambold kept recuperating the machinery for manufacturing it. Surely, the last patent application Mr. Rambold filed (at the age of 87) was for an improved machine get into manufacturing double chamber tea bags.