U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for December 26

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Dec 26, 2014, 12:01 ET

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

AMERICA PERKS UP

Profile America, Friday, December 26^th. The millions of Americans who for nearly a century and a half have enjoyed well-brewed coffee can direct their gratitude to James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts. He received the nation's first patent for a coffee percolator on this date in 1865. Now, not only does just about every home in the U.S. have a coffeemaker, but many also grind their own fresh from coffee beans. The percolator still has a market niche, but since the 1970s has been overtaken by automatic drip coffee makers, and increasingly, the elaborate variants of espresso brewers. One-point-five million metric tons of coffee and its extracts and preparations are imported annually. The vast majority of that is unroasted coffee, and its import value runs around a half-billion dollars a month. Profile America is in its 18th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:
Kane's Famous First Facts, 3850
Patent info: http://www.google.com/patents/US51741
Quantity of coffee imports: http://www.ers.usda.gov/datafiles/US_Food_Imports/__Value_of_US_food_imports_detailed_tables_by_food_group/Coffeet2_1_.xlsx Value of coffee imports: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/current_press_release/exh8.pdf

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau