Melitta Bentz (1873-1950)

Melitta Bentz was a housewife in Dresden Germany when at 35 years old she invented the modern coffee filter. Before her invention coffee was made by wrapping coffee grounds in cloth and immersing them in hot water. The cloth often leaked making the resulting cup of coffee bitter and grainy. Melitta perforated a brass pot and used some of her son's blotting paper to make her first prototype drip filter in 1908. Melitta coffee filters are now used in over 150 countries worldwide and two out of every three American coffee drinkers use her drip preparation method. She eventually passed on the Melitta company to her two sons. The company is still run today by members of the Bentz family.