Peter Schlumbohm
Encyclopedia
Peter Schlumbohm was a German
inventor, best known for creating the Chemex Coffeemaker
. In a eulogy for Schlumbohm shortly after his death in 1962, the notable design author Ralph Caplan
described the typical Schlumbohm invention as “a synthesis of logic and madness”. Caplan, like hundreds of thousands of Americans, was particularly fond of the Chemex Coffeemaker, describing it as “one of the few modern designs for which one can feel affection as well as admiration.” The Chemex was also one of the few products from any designer or inventor of the time to achieve a truly iconic role in popular culture, becoming part of the permanent collections of art and design museums, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art
.
Schlumbohm himself professed admiration for the abortive post-war revolutionary movement, recounting his mother’s enthusiasm at the sight of the summary execution of military officers by revolutionary mutineers in Kiel in 1918. A year later, in an article in a University of Hamburg magazine, Schlumbohm called for the abolition of the military, and the implementation of technocratic leadership in the German state. Along with his chemistry classes, Schlumbohm studied Gestalt Psychology
under one of its founders, the psychologist Wolfgang Koehler.
After leaving University, Schlumbohm spent the next four to five years in a semi-itinerant manner, supporting himself through the sale of patents and inventions to various manufacturers in Germany, France and England. Schlumbohm worked for some years perfecting a color-correcting mirror, initially marketed to theaters.
. Despite advice from business contacts that business conditions were desperate, Schlumbohm was confident enough, or desperate enough, to make the trip that same year. Once in the U.S, Schlumbohm was able to sell patents for vacuum bottle designs to the American Thermos Bottle Company for $7,000. America’s patent
laws held a great attraction for Schlumbohm after this first experience, and his later writings credit the patent regulations of the U.S. as the main reason for his relocation to the country, overcoming his distaste for the corporate mindset of American business.
The improvement of refrigeration
through chemical, mechanical, and engineered processes was Schlumbohm’s perennial interest throughout his working life. Between 1929 and 1941, out of 44 patents filed, at least 26 were directly related to this topic. Schlumbohm considered refrigeration to be one of the most important and necessary scientific fields, going so far as to state, “Our civilization is a function of the degree of vacuum man can produce industrially,” the production of vacuum being a critical component of refrigeration.
The final event of the process which culminated in the marketing of the Chemex was Schlumbohm’s final attempt to market the ‘open system’ transitory refrigeration cycle device which he had been perfecting for some years. A working prototype had been exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair
, claiming to be the cheapest and simplest refrigeration system ever invented. Schlumbohm considered this to be the invention that would provide the financial independence he had been seeking since his graduation more than a decade before, and had in fact been working on versions of the same device since 1929. Finally, an investor offered to provide sufficient money to put the prototype into production, but demanded a controlling interest in the company which would produce the device. Schlumbohm refused the overture, which placed him in a difficult financial predicament. “To afford that refusal, I had to take an appraising look at the other arrows in my quiver. There was this new patent for the coffeemaker, with its broad appeal. Within a week, I had sold half-an-interest in it for $5000 and planned to license it.”
Schlumbohm’s patent No. 2,241,368 for a ‘Filtering Device’ had been filed on April 13, 1939. The original version included a spout and handle, much more complex than the final familiar version, and was intended for multiple uses, including laboratory filtering processes.
By 1942 Schlumbohm had successfully interested Wanamakers and Macy's in his product and was faced with the problem of finding a manufacturer willing to handle the level of orders in the increasingly difficult wartime production environment. After successfully procuring approval from the War Production Board
, Schlumbohm was able to enter into a production agreement with the Corning Glass Works. The simplicity of the design, and the materials and processes involved in its manufacture, immediately resonated with the predominant design sentiment of the time, which was a combination of the purism of the Bauhaus
style, newly dominant in the U.S. in part due to the arrival from Nazi Germany of the German design diaspora, and the U.S. Government’s propagandistic attempts to co-opt the design establishment into supporting the centralization of the economy. Schlumbohm was well aware of the advantageous situation that an all-glass product held against competing devices constructed of materials such as aluminum and chrome, materials whose supply was prioritized by armaments producers. The Chemex coffeemaker received a potent seal of approval from the design establishment in 1942, when it appeared on the cover of the Museum of Modern Art
’s ‘Useful Objects in Wartime’ bulletin, making it the official poster-child of establishment’s new emphasis on undecorated, functional simplicity, the rejection of streamlining
as a decorative motif, and the use of non-priority materials, as well as the implicit populist sentiment presented in the bulletin’s showcasing of objects and products manufactured in response to requests from servicemen for ‘useful objects’.
, perhaps hoping that Addams would place a Chemex in Gomez and Morticia’s kitchen, or Grandpa’s laboratory. Schlumbohm also made his invention part of the political scene, presenting coffeemakers to President Harry S. Truman
and Lyndon B. Johnson
. When stationed in London, Ian Fleming's James Bond always had very strong coffee brewed in an American Chemex (From Russia With Love).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
inventor, best known for creating the Chemex Coffeemaker
Chemex Coffeemaker
The Chemex Coffeemaker is a coffee-making device. It was introduced and continues to be manufactured by the Chemex Corporation. Pittsfield, Mass. It was invented in 1941 by Peter Schlumbohm....
. In a eulogy for Schlumbohm shortly after his death in 1962, the notable design author Ralph Caplan
Ralph Caplan
Ralph Caplan, born January 4, 1925 in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, is a well-known design consultant, writer in the field of design, author and public speaker.In 1941 Caplan entered Earlham College for a semester, then enlisted in the Marine Corps...
described the typical Schlumbohm invention as “a synthesis of logic and madness”. Caplan, like hundreds of thousands of Americans, was particularly fond of the Chemex Coffeemaker, describing it as “one of the few modern designs for which one can feel affection as well as admiration.” The Chemex was also one of the few products from any designer or inventor of the time to achieve a truly iconic role in popular culture, becoming part of the permanent collections of art and design museums, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
.
Life
Schlumbohm was born July 10, 1896 in Kiel, Germany, “…the oldest son of a well-to-do manufacturer of paints and chemicals, who was very jolly and very Lutheran.” Only six months after graduating the German equivalent of high school, Schlumbohm was conscripted into the German army, fighting in the landmark battles of Ypres and Langemark as an artillery brigade captain. Immediately upon his return from France in 1918, Schlumbohm gave up his inheritance in his father’s chemical business in exchange for an agreement with family members to support his education for as long as he wished to stay in school. According to Schlumbohm, “My father was horrified when I waived my birthright and ‘lifelong security’ and named my only goal: to find out what had caused the mess of a war and to study as long as I wished to.”Schlumbohm himself professed admiration for the abortive post-war revolutionary movement, recounting his mother’s enthusiasm at the sight of the summary execution of military officers by revolutionary mutineers in Kiel in 1918. A year later, in an article in a University of Hamburg magazine, Schlumbohm called for the abolition of the military, and the implementation of technocratic leadership in the German state. Along with his chemistry classes, Schlumbohm studied Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...
under one of its founders, the psychologist Wolfgang Koehler.
After leaving University, Schlumbohm spent the next four to five years in a semi-itinerant manner, supporting himself through the sale of patents and inventions to various manufacturers in Germany, France and England. Schlumbohm worked for some years perfecting a color-correcting mirror, initially marketed to theaters.
In the United States
Schlumbohm first visited the United States in 1931, in connection with attempts to sell patent rights related to the manufacture of carbon-dioxide, or ‘dry’, iceDry ice
Dry ice, sometimes referred to as "Cardice" or as "card ice" , is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is used primarily as a cooling agent. Its advantages include lower temperature than that of water ice and not leaving any residue...
. Despite advice from business contacts that business conditions were desperate, Schlumbohm was confident enough, or desperate enough, to make the trip that same year. Once in the U.S, Schlumbohm was able to sell patents for vacuum bottle designs to the American Thermos Bottle Company for $7,000. America’s patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
laws held a great attraction for Schlumbohm after this first experience, and his later writings credit the patent regulations of the U.S. as the main reason for his relocation to the country, overcoming his distaste for the corporate mindset of American business.
The improvement of refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
through chemical, mechanical, and engineered processes was Schlumbohm’s perennial interest throughout his working life. Between 1929 and 1941, out of 44 patents filed, at least 26 were directly related to this topic. Schlumbohm considered refrigeration to be one of the most important and necessary scientific fields, going so far as to state, “Our civilization is a function of the degree of vacuum man can produce industrially,” the production of vacuum being a critical component of refrigeration.
Inventing the perfect coffeemaker
The Chemex coffeemaker was a consequence of intersection of Schlumbohm's scientific and marketing interests. Between his first American trip in 1931 and the filing of the U.S. patent for Chemex, Schlumbohm applied for dozens of patents, focused on his core specialty of refrigeration but also wildly diverse. Patents included applications for a ‘method of illuminating rooms’, ‘unburnable gasoline’, a ‘writing utensil’, and a ‘show window’ among many others, most of which are assumed to have been produced for sale.The final event of the process which culminated in the marketing of the Chemex was Schlumbohm’s final attempt to market the ‘open system’ transitory refrigeration cycle device which he had been perfecting for some years. A working prototype had been exhibited at the 1939 New York World’s Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, claiming to be the cheapest and simplest refrigeration system ever invented. Schlumbohm considered this to be the invention that would provide the financial independence he had been seeking since his graduation more than a decade before, and had in fact been working on versions of the same device since 1929. Finally, an investor offered to provide sufficient money to put the prototype into production, but demanded a controlling interest in the company which would produce the device. Schlumbohm refused the overture, which placed him in a difficult financial predicament. “To afford that refusal, I had to take an appraising look at the other arrows in my quiver. There was this new patent for the coffeemaker, with its broad appeal. Within a week, I had sold half-an-interest in it for $5000 and planned to license it.”
Schlumbohm’s patent No. 2,241,368 for a ‘Filtering Device’ had been filed on April 13, 1939. The original version included a spout and handle, much more complex than the final familiar version, and was intended for multiple uses, including laboratory filtering processes.
Icon of wartime design
The Chemex Corporation was incorporated in New York State in late 1939. The directors were Schlumbohm himself, Isaac Harter, an acquaintance from Ohio, and Edward Turner who was given a minority holding of one share in order to meet the incorporation law’s requirement that two thirds of a company’s directorate be American citizens. Most significantly, Schlumbohm was finalizing the spoutless design for the coffeemaker, with its pouring groove, level button, and vent, which was to become the familiar icon.By 1942 Schlumbohm had successfully interested Wanamakers and Macy's in his product and was faced with the problem of finding a manufacturer willing to handle the level of orders in the increasingly difficult wartime production environment. After successfully procuring approval from the War Production Board
War Production Board
The War Production Board was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States...
, Schlumbohm was able to enter into a production agreement with the Corning Glass Works. The simplicity of the design, and the materials and processes involved in its manufacture, immediately resonated with the predominant design sentiment of the time, which was a combination of the purism of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
style, newly dominant in the U.S. in part due to the arrival from Nazi Germany of the German design diaspora, and the U.S. Government’s propagandistic attempts to co-opt the design establishment into supporting the centralization of the economy. Schlumbohm was well aware of the advantageous situation that an all-glass product held against competing devices constructed of materials such as aluminum and chrome, materials whose supply was prioritized by armaments producers. The Chemex coffeemaker received a potent seal of approval from the design establishment in 1942, when it appeared on the cover of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
’s ‘Useful Objects in Wartime’ bulletin, making it the official poster-child of establishment’s new emphasis on undecorated, functional simplicity, the rejection of streamlining
Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
as a decorative motif, and the use of non-priority materials, as well as the implicit populist sentiment presented in the bulletin’s showcasing of objects and products manufactured in response to requests from servicemen for ‘useful objects’.
Schlumbohm in the 1950s
After the war, Schlumbohm continued his deliberative approach to maintaining the public profile of the Chemex line, not only through prominent placement in advertisement, trade shows, and international expositions, but also in a generous gift-giving strategy, presenting Chemex coffeemakers to the famous cartoonist Charles AddamsCharles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
, perhaps hoping that Addams would place a Chemex in Gomez and Morticia’s kitchen, or Grandpa’s laboratory. Schlumbohm also made his invention part of the political scene, presenting coffeemakers to President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
and Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. When stationed in London, Ian Fleming's James Bond always had very strong coffee brewed in an American Chemex (From Russia With Love).
External links
- MOMA's collection of Schlumbohm's work is available online
- Chemex Corporation's biography
- The Hagley Museum and LibraryHagley Museum and LibraryThe Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution located in Wilmington, Delaware. Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves and interprets the history of American enterprise.- Hagley Library :...
has a collection of Schlumbohm's scrapbooks and correspondence in the Marc HarrisonMarc HarrisonMarc Harrison was an industrial designer and pioneer of Universal Design. As the result of a severe brain injury when he was 11 years old, Harrison had to relearn basic functions such as walking and talking and thus gained inspiration for this career in industrial design.Harrison earned his BFA...
papers. - Chemex Coffee Maker Brewing Instructions