Edmund Abel

Abel was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1921, at the family home at 8111 Madison Avenue.[5] to Edmund A. Abel, Sr., a laborer, and Rose Schoeffel Abel, a homemaker.[1] Abel, who had two older sisters, was his parents' only son.[1][5] He also had a younger sister.[5]

He became a student pilot and an amateur radio operator as a high school student.[1] However, his interest in electrical and mechanical engineering began during his early teens while working for his uncle, Joe Schoeffel, who built homes for a living.[5] Abel graduated from West High School on Franklin Avenue, Cleveland, in 1942.[5] He was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after his graduation at the height of World War II.[5] Abel constructed early remote-controlled flying drones, which were used as target practice during the war.[1] He was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, and later landed at Cebu, Philippines, towards the end of the war.[5] He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1945.[5] He returned to Ohio following the war, where he studied aeronautical engineering at the AeroWays using the G.I. Bill.[1][5] Abel, who held patents in aviation and film developing, worked for Westinghouse earlier in his career.[1][3]

Business partners Samuel Glazer and Vincent Marotta of North American Systems Inc., which was headquartered in Cleveland, originally conceived the basic idea for a consumer, automatic drip coffeemaker for home.[3] Glazer and Marotta soon hired Abel and another former Westinghouse engineer, Erwin Schulze, to create the machine.[1][2] Abel developed a new type of coffeemaker which used water heated to a lower temperature than traditional percolators.[1] The new brewer also produced a more mellow, lighter taste than a percolator.[1] The new machine, which was patented by Edmund Abel, came to be called Mr. Coffee.[1] In addition to a less bitter flavor, Abel's heating element for Mr. Coffee could also brew coffee much faster than any, similar machines available at the time.[1] Mr. Coffee could brew one cup of coffee in just 30 seconds and ten cups in just five minutes.[1]

Abel's heating element for the coffeemaker was unveiled at the National Housewares Show in Chicago in 1971.[1] It went on sale in 1972 for $39.99, effectively revolutionizing the home brewing market.[1] Beginning in 1973, sales were bolstered by TV advertising that featured New York Yankees baseball great Joe DiMaggio, who became the face of Mr. Coffee for over 20 years.[6]

Abel received very little credit or attribution for his patented heating element for the coffeemaker.[1] Though he held the patent for the heating element for Mr. Coffee, Abel assigned the patent to Mr. Coffee's manufacturer, North American Systems.[1][4] The co-owner of North American Systems Inc., Vincent Marotta, often took full credit for the complete conception and design of Mr. Coffee in interviews, which reportedly annoyed Abel.[1] Edmund Abel received very few royalties from his patented invention.[1]

Abel died from old age at his home in Rocky River, Ohio, at the age of 92.[1][2] He credited his long lifespan with a natural diet supplemented with grapefruit seed extract.[1]