he Morewood (Improved Faulder) sliding-burner indirect
type]

Natural gas was first used in the United States as fuel for roasting
coffee in 1896, when it was introduced under coal roasting cylinders in
Pennsylvania and Indiana by improvised gas burners.

[Illustration: FRENCH GLOBULAR ROASTER]

Edwin Crawley and W.T. Johnston, Newport, Ky., assignors to the
Potter-Parlin Co., New York, were granted four United States patents on
gas coffee-roasting machines.

In 1897, a special gas burner, not to be confused with the direct-flame
machine, was first attached to a regular Burns roaster in the United
States, and was made the basis of application for a patent.

In 1897-99, David B. Fraser, of New York, began to market in the United
States a central-heated gas-fuel machine with an inner wire-cloth
cylinder to keep the coffee from dropping into the flame, developed
under United States patents granted to Carl H. Duehring, of Hoboken, in
1897, and to D.B. Fraser in 1899.

M.F. Hamsley, of Brooklyn, was granted a United States patent on an
improved direct-flame gas roaster in 1898.

Ellis M. Potter, New York, was granted in 1899, a United States patent
on an improved direct-flame gas roaster in which the flame was spread
over a large area to avoid scorching and to insure a more thorough and
uniform roast. In the Tupholme machine, the gas flame entered at one
end, and the smoke and flame went out through a stack on top. In the
Potter machine, the stack was put on the end opposite the gas intake,
with a fan to pull the flame all the way through.

The Burns direct-flame gas roaster, with patented swing-gate head for
feeding and discharging, was introduced to the trade in 1900. The Burns
gas sample-roaster followed.

In 1901, Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., introduced to the trade one
of the earliest indirect gas roasting machines.

In 1901, also, T.C. Morewood, of Brentford, England, was granted an
English patent on a gas roaster fitted with a sliding burner and a
removable sampling tube. This machine is now being made by the Grocers
Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.

In the same year, 1901, F.T. Holmes, formerly with the Potter-Parlin
Co., joined the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., which
then began to build the Monitor direct-flame gas coffee roaster. Mr.
Holmes still further improved the Tupholme idea by putting gas burners
in both ends of the roasting cylinder, with the pipes bent down so as to
cause