Chemex Coffeemaker

When Peter Schlumbohm set out to design a coffeemaker in 1938, he approached the problem as both a chemist and a product designer. Having studied the chemical reactions involved in extracting flavor and caffeine from coffee beans, he understood that form should serve function. The result was an hourglass-shaped vessel inspired simultaneously by the Bauhaus school of design and the laboratory equipment he knew intimately—specifically, the Erlenmeyer flask. Cast in one piece from borosilicate glass, the Chemex coffeemaker was patented in 1941 and manufactured by Chemex Corporation, becoming a fixture in American kitchens within the decade.

The coffeemaker's design embodies a mid-century conviction that domestic objects could and should operate according to scientific principles. Schlumbohm paired the glass vessel with a wooden collar and rawhide tie, materials chosen for both practicality and aesthetic restraint. Equally important to the system was the Bonded Chemex paper filter, which Schlumbohm invented to ensure consistent extraction. This combination of materials, geometry, and consumables created a complete brewing method rather than merely a vessel—one that remains largely unchanged in its essentials today.

The Chemex has accumulated institutional recognition uncommon for utilitarian objects. It appears in the permanent collections of major museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Washington, D.C. The design was selected by the Illinois Institute of Technology as one of the 100 best designed products of modern times. It featured notably in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love, an association that cemented its place in post-war design culture. Yet this cultural resonance has not obscured its primary function: the coffeemaker remains a working tool, still manufactured using hand-assembly methods, and still in use by people who value both the clarity of its form and the quality of coffee it produces.