Countless methods of preparing coffee have debuted throughout history, but many consider the percolator of 1825 to be the original coffee brewing device. Less than a hundred years later, German housewife Melitta Bentz invented the first paper coffee filter and the drip coffee method, changing the course of coffee history forever.

Bentz came up with the Melitta filter and drip coffee system because she wanted "a better way to make a cleaner cup of coffee," says the Melitta website. She made holes in a brass pot and used blotting paper from her son's homework as a makeshift filter, added grounds to the filter, then poured hot water over them to make coffee.

Bentz filed a patent in 1908 for a "coffee filter with a domed underside, recessed bottom and inclined flow holes" and launched her own company out of her apartment. Coffee importation was banned during WWI, creating a setback, but Bentz's son patented the filters again in the 1930s, and today, we owe all our pour-over to Bentz.