Overview: This article explores the life of 19th century inventor and entrepreneur Jabez Burns. Though not a household name today, his patents and company modernized coffee roasting equipment and greatly increased coffee consumption across America. We will analyze key details around Burns‘ background, early business exploits, major inventions like the Roastmaster, establishing the Jabez Burns & Sons corporation, publishing the popular Spice Mill magazine, and his lasting impacts on the coffee industry as it transitioned into a mass staple commodity thanks to the affordability and consistency his designs allowed.
Humble Origins Across the Pond
Jabez Burns first entered the world on February 12, 1826 in bustling London, England. Church archives show he was baptized a month later at St. Mary‘s Parish as the second child of Scottish immigrants William Gibson Burns and Elizabeth Horrock Burns. Some records indicate Elizabeth worked as a domestic servant prior to marriage. Older brother George was born in 1824 also in London.
The Burns family lived in the district of Lambeth, a poorer area densely populated with both factory workers and artisans. William plied his trade as a basket maker while self-educating through Chartist meetings and newspapers. This early exposure to skilled craftwork and political consciousness clearly influenced young Jabez. By 1829, the Burns had relocated to Scotland‘s thriving industrial port city of Dundee.
Although details on his childhood are scarce, Jabez likely attended local parish schools while his father worked. Corporal punishment was still common practice against rambunctious students at the time. We can reasonably speculate bookish Jabez avoided the paddle more often than not. The Burns ingrained into him early on the virtues of curiosity, initiative, and perseverance.
Seeking Prosperity in the Land of Opportunity
As post-Napoleonic War recession gripped the British Isles in 1844, American shores increasingly beckoned immigrants across the Atlantic with promises of freedom and fortune. This explains the impetus for 18-year-old Jabez Burns and his widowed mother Elizabeth to depart Scotland bound for New York that pivotal summer. Meanwhile, William and brother George had already set off for Australia three years prior.
Elizabeth possibly found work as a housemaid while Jabez immediately displayed pluck and resourcefulness by teaching at a small country school in Summit, New Jersey during his first American winter. By 1845, he migrated back to the teeming metropolis of New York City following word of openings with commercial coffee purveyors. This initial exposure to America‘s largest industry hub also introduced entrepreneurial Jabez to an increasingly popular hot beverage about to explode in demand nationwide – coffee itself.
| Year | Population of NYC |
|---|---|
| 1800 | 60,515 |
| 1850 | 515,547 |
| 1860 | 813,669 |
Table: Early 19th century New York City population boom. Source: nycgovparks.org
The above table helps illustrate the exponential growth New York underwent during the 1800s. Immigration like the Burnses experienced drove breakneck urbanization and the search for jobs by these newcomers. Although tea retained greater American market share into the late 1800s, coffee slowly gained preference for being more align with the country‘s bold emerging national identity. Burns arrived at the right place and time to make his mark.
Love, Family & Scaling the Ranks
Two years after arriving stateside, Burns solidified connections within New York‘s Scottish émigré circles by marrying Agnes Brown, daughter of Paisley weaver James Brown. Church circuits provided invaluable networking for these transplants. The Burns family expanded steadily, with seven children including sons William, Jabez Jr., Joseph, Robert, James, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington plus daughter Agnes all being baptized at New York‘s 19th Street Presbyterian Church.
While raising his bustling household, Jabez Burns worked a range of grunt positions for an array of mercantile firms, graduating over 15 years from lowly cart-man and box-turner to head bookkeeper. This gained him invaluable first-hand insights into coffee‘s farm-to-cup journey at a time before anti-trust regulations or consumer protections. Dishonest practices ranged from bulking roasted beans with twigs or acorns to adding ingredients like chalk or clay to whitewash inferior blends.
Burns seemingly operated according to his own moral compass. By the 1860s he had absorbed enough trade secrets from bosses at leading dealers like Henry Blair‘s and the massive Globe Mills to launch his own side venture. Ingenious Jabez already envisioned easier ways to achieve what laboring artisan roasters accomplished manually via difficult, inconsistent methods. His technical knack and intimate buyer-seller understanding primed the self-taught Burns to Develop important patents.
Transforming Coffee through Ingenuity
Jabez Burns registered early verification of his inventiveness via an 1858 patent for a mechanical adding calculator dubbed the "Burns Addometer." This helped beloved local bookkeeper Burns crunch figures more quickly sans common errors. Its intricate geared wheels proving he could devise complex machines rivaling factories of the dawning Gilded Age. Only the lone original model survives displayed proudly within the Smithsonian Museum collection.
Buoyed by this progress, Burns invested nights and weekends perfecting his greatest brainchild – the 1866 "Burns Roastmaster." This patented appliance revolutionized coffee roasting itself by encasing green beans inside a rotating, steam-heated dual cylinder that constantly agitated them. Expert Burns dialed in ideal temperatures and rhythms to coax optimal caramelization of natural sugars and aromatic oils inside each bean. This yielded unparalleled uniformity and flavor once ground compared to the uneven roasting over wood fires or coal of old.
The Roastmaster‘s compact size, efficiency and ease of use made the device affordable for small scale urban roasteries to deliver consistent quality that wooed customers away from loose-leaf teas. Enthused local dealers soon pleaded for more units they struggled meeting demand for. So in 1867 Burns founded Jabez Burns & Sons corporation to mass produce Roastmasters within his New York workshop utilizing steam engines for automation. Sons William, Jabez Jr, Joseph and Robert all apprenticed from adolescence in the family trade.
Table: Notable Burns Roasting Innovations
| Year | Invention | Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1866 | Roastmaster | Twin internal chambers rotated beans over steam heat |
| 1872 | Crystal Cooler | Spun hot beans rapidly in cold air after roasting |
| 1875 | Vacuum Coffee Pot | Early siphon-type brewer extracting fuller flavor |
| 1880 | Bean Silo Storage | Insulated towering bins kept huge supplies fresh |
| 1883 | Steam-Powered Espresso | Very high pressure extraction, futuristic concept |
Over successive decades, Jabez Burns & Sons secured over 27 patents for coffee related advancements bettering cultivation, transport, cleaning, grinding, packaging and pouring of beloved brews. Jabez engaged leading business minds as advisors plus collaborated with chemists and engineers to solidify technical edges against would-be competitors. This fertile period of productivity saw the Burns‘ reputation soar domestically and abroad as global coffee consumption swelled in parallel.
Full Steam Ahead Expands Influence
By the mid 1870s Jabez Burns & Sons dominated American coffee machinery manufacturing. Optimized output from their New York headquarters and satellite shops serviced roasters nationwide. The firm‘s 75 skilled employees completed over 2000 Roastmaster units and other accessories annually, capturing some 80% market share by 1890.
International prestige attracted venture capital that continued expanding operations throughout its founder‘s lifetime. Shrewd Jabez even safeguarded his company‘s intangible assets and industry standing via savvy information management.
In 1878 Burns launched a customer circular entitled The Spice Mill: America‘s First Coffee-Trade Journal. This monthly sought educating clients on best storage, blending and brewing methods to bolster sales. However The Spice Mill soon broadened scope covering latest cultivation, political, and pricing news to become widely esteemed amongst roasters. Burns set precedents for data-driven marketing and collective intelligence missed by stuffier Yankee contemporaries.
Still Percolating Along
Jabez Burns died aged 62 in September 1888, a venerated innovator who helped fertilize New York City‘s economic ascent alongside contemporaries Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan and other ambitious men brewing lucrative new markets. His widow Agnes and heirs carried on dutifully for decades until selling in 1960, retaining select patents.
By then American coffee consumption exceeded 75% of households as tastes transitioned towards milder blends. Yet we all owe Burns our caffeinated productivity today. Had this clever immigrant not mastered the science of flavor-enhancing roasts and pioneered scaled equipment, coffee culture might resemble far weaker tea. Burns‘ mechanical contributions percolated the mass popularity coffee still retains thanks to the affordability and consistency his inventions brewed. Here‘s to you Jabez!
