Abstract: An electric coffee or tea making machine wherein the housing resembles a carafe and has an annular outer chamber for hot beverage and a centrally located chamber for a body of water. The centrally located chamber is located above a heating unit, such as a standard electric resistance heater, a halogen lamp or a heater with one or more thick film conductors, and the heated liquid flows upwardly through a riser to be distributed over a supply of comminuted coffee beans or tea leaves in a removable filtering unit which has an outlet for admission of freshly brewed coffee or tea into the outer chamber. A cover above the filtering unit is threadedly connected to the upper end of the housing to ensure that the interior of the housing can be maintained well above atmospheric pressure without risking escape of hot water or steam. The device for uniformly distributing heated water in the filtering unit can constitute a nozzle or a foraminous top wall above the supply of flavoring agent.

Abstract: A tea making machine wherein the bottom wall of an upper vessel can be used to seal the open top of a lower vessel which contains a supply of water. The upper vessel contains a supply of tea leaves and its bottom wall has an upright tubular portion for a riser with an open upper end in the upper vessel and an open lower end in the lower vessel. The riser is adjustable so that its lower end can be moved to any one of a number of different levels above the bottom of the lower vessel. When the supply of water in the lower vessel is heated, the pressure in the lower vessel rises and boiling water is compelled to flow up the riser and into the upper vessel where it contacts the tea leaves. When the level of the supply of water in the lower vessel descends below the lower end of the riser, such water must be evaporated in order to rise into the upper vessel. The interval which elapses for evaporation determines the steeping time in the upper vessel.

Abstract: A machine for brewing coffee or other hot beverages has a container for a supply of liquid, a heater, a hollow filter holder which can receive a relatively large quantity of comminuted coffee beans or another flavoring agent, and a riser which conveys heated liquid to the filter holder. The admitted liquid contacts the confined supply of flavoring agent and can be discharged by way of a sealable opening in the bottom wall of the filter holder. If the machine is to brew a single cupful or a similar relatively small quantity of a hot beverage, the holder receives an insert which can hold a small quantity of flavoring agent and is contacted by hot liquid before the liquid enters the interior of the holder where it can be stored or discharged into a cup or another relatively small vessel.

Abstract: The housing of a machine for brewing coffee, tea or other hot beverages confines or carries a water container, a riser which conveys water from the container past an electric heater and into a manifold, and a filter holder. The manifold has two sections which are separably connected to each other to define an inlet connected with the riser, a first outlet which can deliver hot water to the filter holder, and a second outlet which can return water into the container. A disc-shaped valving element has a central portion clamped between the two sections of the manifold and a marginal portion which can snap over from a first position, in which the valving element seals the inlet of the manifold from the first outlet, to a second position in which the valving element seals the inlet from the second outlet of the manifold.

Abstract: A food processor wherein the output member of the prime mover extends vertically upwardly into a removable bowl and drives a rotary torque transmitting member having at its upper end a set of teeth arranged to mate with the teeth of a gear provided in a rotary juice extractor which is installed in a receptacle on top of the bowl. The torque transmitting member is a single-purpose part or it can constitute an adapter with additional external teeth arranged to drive a tool at a level below a cover which replaces the receptacle or a tool at a level directly or closely above the bottom portion of the bowl. The receptacle has a perforated bottom wall which permits juice to descend into the bowl, and the juice extractor rotates in the receptacle about an axis which is parallel to and remote from the axis of the torque transmitting member.

Abstract: A food processor wherein the tool in the bowl is rotated by a spindle, which is driven by an electric motor, through the medium of an insulating sleeve and an adapter which receives torque from the sleeve and transmits torque directly to the tool or through the medium of a tool carrier. The insulating sleeve, the spindle and an inner tubular portion of the adapter are surrounded by a tubular extension which is integral with the bottom wall and extends into the interior of the bowl. An outer tubular portion of the adapter has a coupling device which cooperates with the internal coupling device of a tool when the latter is placed around the outer tubular portion. A shank which extends upwardly from the outer tubular portion of the adapter can be centered at the underside of a cover for the bowl and can have an additional external coupling element which transmits torque to a tool or to the carrier. The selected tool or the carrier can but need not be removed from the bowl with the adapter.

Abstract: A food processor wherein a shaft which extends into the interior of a bowl is driven by an electric motor employs a whipping tool having a hub which receives torque from the shaft, either directly or through the medium of an adapter, and a disc-shaped portion. The underside of the disc-shaped portion is immediately adjacent to the upper side of the bottom wall of the bowl and has ribs separating radially extending channels each having an inlet in the region of the hub and one or more outlets at the periphery of the tool. When the tool rotates, the inlets draw air or receive air from a system of passages, and the channels discharge the thus admitted air into the material (such as cream, egg whites or mayonnaise) which gathers at the periphery of the tool so that the material is thoroughly mixed and is also whipped by admission of finely atomized air. The tool can process large or very small quantities of foodstuffs without changing its RPM.

Abstract: A household slicing machine wherein a disc-shaped knife can be driven to rotate in a first vertical plane and a stop for the foodstuff to be sliced is mounted in the housing in a second vertical plane which is parallel to the first plane. The stop is shiftable at right angles to the first plane to change the thickness of the slices and the adjusting device which shifts the stop relative to the knife has a pair of coaxial sleeves rotatably mounted on the stop and defining a helical path having several sections with different leads. A stationary carrier is provided on a working platform in front of the support and has a follower which extends into the helical path.