Coffee Pot
I can remember waking up and
smelling the aroma of fresh perked coffee as Mother
prepared breakfast. This was before “Mr. Coffee” and no one
had even heard of “Starbuck’s”.
Coffee was always prepared with a coffee pot called a
percolator. Granted, it wasn’t the best tasting coffee. It
was sometimes a little bitter although Maxwell House
claimed that it was good to the last drop. Because the
water had to be boiled for the percolator to work, the heat
of the boiling water often caused the coffee grounds to
“cook” and give a bitter taste. Care had to be taken not to
over perk the coffee. Some old timers learned to like this
bitter taste. Others preferred to “cream” their coffee
giving it a smooth taste and also helping hide the bitter
taste.
Coffee can be addictive but otherwise with little harmful
effect. Most just enjoy its flavor and like to have a warm
drink especially with meals. My daddy always had coffee
with his meals no matter what we were having and he liked
it black.
Back then every household had a coffee pot. It was small
and easy to keep clean. It could even be used on camping
trips. You might have noticed in the old westerns the
cowboys around the campfire often had a coffee pot.
The percolator is a simple machine but I doubt if many can
explain how it works. There is a hollow tube with a small
circular base that rests on the bottom of the percolator. A
small cup-like sieve with a hole in its center holds the
ground coffee and is placed at the top of the hollow tube.
The hollow tube runs through the hole in the center of the
sieve. Water is placed in the percolator and brought to a
boil. The boiling water runs up the hollow tube and spills
over on the coffee grounds with each perk. The water
returns to the bottom of the percolator through the sieve.
After a short time enough coffee is dissolved to produce a
dark brown drink. 
I did some
research on the internet to find why the water goes up the
hollow tube. Boiling water causes bubbles to form. As the
bubbles with trapped steam in them form in the hollow tube
they burst. When they burst pressure is formed that forces
water out the top of the tube. This creates a small vacuum
that sucks more boiling water up the tube and the process
is repeated. “Why?” may be the most important question in
learning.