brought soluble coffee to the front. E.F.
Holbrook, formerly in charge of the coffee section, subsistence
division, United States War Department, said, "The use of mustard gas by
the Germans made it one of the most important articles of subsistence
used by the army." Early in the war, soluble coffee was added to the
reserve ration, three-quarters of an ounce being considered at first the
proper amount per ration. After trying to put it up in sticks, tablets,
capsules, and other forms, it was determined that the best method was to
pack it in envelopes. A month before the signing of the armistice, the
New York depot was notified that after January 1, 1919, the requirements
of soluble coffee were to be 25,000 pounds per day in addition to
quantities packed in reserve rations, bringing the total daily output to
42,500 pounds per day. Arrangements were made to have the total output
of the New York zone, 40,000 pounds per day, packed in quarter-ounce
envelopes, twenty-four to a sealed can.

I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of Kato and the
Kato patent, organized the Soluble Coffee Co. of America in 1918, to
supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas. After the
armistice, the company began licensing other merchants under the Kato
patent or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them if
desired.

William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, assignors to John E.
King, Detroit, were granted a United States patent in 1919 on a process
for making a new soluble coffee. Their process consists in bringing the
volatilized caffeol in contact with a petrolatum, or absorbing medium,
where it is held until needed for combination with the evaporated coffee
extract. The King Coffee Products Corp. of Detroit was organized in 1920
to manufacture this product, known as Minute coffee, and a coffee base
for soft drinks, the latter being marketed under the name of Coffee Pep.
Mr. King had believed for many years that soluble coffee was destined to
solve many of the vexations of the coffee business, and had been
experimenting with the idea since 1906. To facilitate his
investigations, he established a fellowship at the Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, in 1914, in charge of Charles W. Trigg.
This chemically controlled research evolved a product which, after
passing through the laboratory stage, was placed upon a small unit plan
basis, and then patented. Five additional patents on