Railway Engine Coffee Maker

Caffeine coming through! This whimsical coffee maker, rendered in the shape of an early steam-powered railway engine, would have surely tickled the fancy of guests when it arrived on the table after dinner. The end of the railway engine (opposite the spigot) features a caddy to store ground coffee. To make this highly fashionable beverage, first introduced to Europeans in the 17th century, the ground coffee would have been spooned from the caddy and placed on a perforated plate inside the large cylinder at the opposite end of the engine. The boiler, located at the center of the engine, held water that was heated by the lamp below. As the water reached boiling, it passed up through the curved tube into the larger cylinder where it dripped through the ground coffee and into the lower compartment. The tap dispensed the coffee into the drinker’s cup. The wheels of the engine revolve and allow the coffee maker to move along the rails. Perhaps there may have been an entire length of track which allowed the coffee engine to move from one end of the table to the other.