1898—A bear campaign forces Rio 7's down to four and a half cents on the New York Coffee Exchange.
1899—The bubonic-plague boom temporarily halts the downward trend of coffee prices.
1899—The Canister Co., Phillipsburg, N.J., begins the manufacture of square and oblong fiber-bodied tin-end cans for coffee.
1899—Soluble coffee is invented in Chicago by Dr. Sartori Kato, a chemist of Tokio.
1899—David B. Fraser, New York, is granted two patents in the United States, one for a coffee roaster and one for a coffee cooler.
1899—Ellis M. Potter, New York, is granted a United States patent on a direct-flame gas coffee roasting machine embodying certain improvements on the Tupholme machine, whereby the gas flame is spread over a large area, so avoiding scorching and securing a more thorough and uniform roast.
1900—The Burns direct-flame gas coffee roaster with a patented swing-gate head for feeding and discharging at the center, is first introduced to the trade.
1900—First gear-driven electric coffee grinder is introduced into the United States market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania.
1900—The Burns swing-gate sample-coffee roasting outfit is patented in the United States.
1900—Hills Bros., San Francisco, are the first to pack coffee in a vacuum under the Norton patents.