George Constant Louis Washington (May 1871 – March 29, 1946) was an American inventor and businessman of Anglo

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

-Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 origin. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee

Instant coffee

Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...

 process and for the company he founded to mass-produce

Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

 it, the G. Washington Coffee Company.

An emigrant

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

 from his native Belgium, he arrived in the New York area in 1897 and dabbled in several technical fields before hitting upon instant coffee manufacture during a sojourn in Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

 in 1906 or 1907. He began selling his coffee in 1909 and founded a company to manufacture it in 1910. Based in New York and New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, his company prospered and became an important military supplier during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The company's products were also advertised in New York newspapers and on the radio. The success of his company made Washington wealthy, and he lived in a mansion in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 and then moved to a country estate in New Jersey in 1927. In that same year, he lost a dispute with the tax authorities. Washington was married and had three children.

Washington's company was sold to American Home Products in 1943, shortly before his death. Though the coffee brand was discontinued by 1961, Washington's name is still used today in the product G. Washington's Seasoning & Broth.

Early life and family

George Washington was born in Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Kortrijk ; , ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders...

, Belgium, in May 1871, to an English father and a Belgian mother. Following then-current nationality law

Nationality law

Nationality law is the branch of law concerned with the questions of nationality and citizenship, and how these statuses are acquired, transmitted, or lost. By custom, a state has the right to determine who its nationals and citizens are. Such determinations are usually made by custom, statutory...

, which considered fatherhood primary, Washington was a British subject until he was naturalized as an American in May 1918. At least six siblings in the family also settled in different parts of the United States and Central America. A number of accounts claim a relation to U.S. President George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

, but this is not clearly explained.

Washington came to reside in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and also attained a degree in chemistry at the University of Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 in Germany. In December 1895, Washington married Angeline Céline Virginie (in the U.S., she just called herself "Lina") Van Nieuwenhuyse (born 1876), also from Belgium. The US Census of 1900 records that Lina, like her husband, had English and Belgian ancestry (a Belgian father and an English mother). The Washingtons' arrival in the United States on a ship from Antwerp, Belgium, on October 6, 1896, was recorded at Ellis Island

Ellis Island

Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...

, though the 1900 US Census states that they emigrated to the United States in 1897. The Washingtons settled in the New York area, where they had three children: Louisa Washington (born May 1897), Irene Washington (born May 1898), and George Washington Jr. (born August 1899).

After arriving in the New York area, Washington founded a company producing kerosene gas mantle

Gas mantle

An incandescent gas mantle, gas mantle, or Welsbach mantle is a device for generating bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat source, existing gas lights, which filled the streets of Europe and North America in the late 19th century, mantle referring to the...

s. At this time, they lived in New Brighton

New Brighton, Staten Island

New Brighton, formerly an independent village, is today a neighborhood located on the North Shore of Staten Island in New York City, USA. The neighborhood comprises an older industrial and residential harbor front area along the Kill Van Kull west of St. George.The village of New Brighton was...

 on Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

, but his company, George Washington Lighting Company, was based in nearby Jersey City

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

. This business was abandoned with the maturation of incandescent light bulb

Incandescent light bulb

The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, a chemical process...

 technology. Washington also had a camera company for a time. By the time of the 1900 US Census, Washington, recorded in the census as an inventor, was 29 years old and living in a rented house in Brooklyn with his 23-year-old wife, their three young children, his younger sister (age 25), three servants, and a child of two of the servants.

Washington tried his hand at cattle ranch

Ranch

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...

ing in Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 in 1906 or 1907 while, in the meantime, developed his instant coffee process. Washington returned to New York City after only a period of about a year in Guatemala and then began pursuing the main part of his career in coffee manufacture.

Personal life

After his coffee business was established in 1910, Washington lived in Brooklyn at 47 Prospect Park West, with a second home in Bellport

Bellport, New York

Bellport is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 2,363 at the 2000 census. The village is named after the Bell family, early settlers of the area. The public education system in Bellport makes up the South Country Central School District consisting of six...

 in Suffolk County

Suffolk County, New York

Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...

 at 287 South Country Road. Washington sold both his homes in 1926–1927 (for a price reportedly exceeding $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1 million) to a group of wealthy Brooklyn men intent on founding a social club. With his company's relocation to New Jersey, following the purchase of land there in 1927, he moved to the former estate of Governor Franklin Murphy

Franklin Murphy (governor)

Franklin Murphy was an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 31st Governor of New Jersey, from 1902-1905. He was the founder of the Murphy Varnish Company in Newark, New Jersey.-Civil War Service:...

 at "Franklin Farms" in Mendham.
Washington was a lover of exotic animals, as well as gardening. He maintained extensive menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

s on his country properties, first at Bellport, and later at Mendham. On Long Island, it is reported that he was often seen with a bird or monkey on his shoulder. At both his menageries, Washington specialized in rare birds, but such animals as deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, sheep, goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...

s, and antelope

Antelope

Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...

 are also recorded at Bellport, and deer, llama

Llama

The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....

s and zebra

Zebra

Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...

s are recorded among the hundreds of animals in the larger space at Mendham. Socially, he was an active member of the Lotos Club

Lotos Club

The Lotos Club is a gentleman's club in New York City. Founded in 1870 by a young group of writers and critics, Mark Twain, an early member, called it the "Ace of Clubs"...

, a literary gentlemen's club in New York City.

Washington's name was briefly put forward for the 1920 presidential election

United States presidential election, 1920

The United States presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I and a hostile response to certain policies of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic president. The wartime economic boom had collapsed. Politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's...

 in South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

's preference primary for the "American Party", although papers were filed too late to be valid. There is no indication, however, that the nomination was serious. George Washington would not have been eligible for that office, in any case, as he was foreign-born. There have been several "American Party"s in history—it is unclear if the nomination was a particular satire on any so-named movement at the time.

Invention and business

George Washington held over two dozen patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

s, in the fields of hydrocarbon lamps

Kerosene lamp

The kerosene lamp is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. This article refers to kerosene lamps that have a wick and a tall glass chimney. Kerosene lanterns that have a wick and a glass globe are related to kerosene lamps and are included here as well...

, camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

s and food processing

Food processing

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...

. He was not the first to invent an instant coffee process, as Satori Kato

Satori Kato

Satori Kato was a Japanese-American chemist. Kato is best known for inventing the first soluble instant coffee and presenting the invention in 1901 at the Pan-American World Fair. American inventor George Washington created a mass-produced version of instant coffee in 1906 with Kato's work as a...

's work was a precursor, among others, but Washington's invention was the first effort that led to commercial manufacture. There is some suggestion that he was inspired by seeing dried powder on the edge of a silver coffee pot. Federico Lehnhoff Wyld, a German-Guatemalan, also developed an instant coffee process about this time, which he later marketed in Europe; as Wyld was Washington's personal doctor, there has been some suggestion that the discovery was not independent.

Washington's product was first marketed as Red E Coffee (a pun on "ready") in 1909, and the G. Washington Coffee Refining Company was founded in 1910. Washington's first production plant was at 147 41st Street in Brooklyn's Bush Terminal industrial complex. The company later moved operations to New Jersey, acquiring the land for the new plant at 45 East Hanover Avenue in Morris Plains

Morris Plains, New Jersey

Morris Plains, billing itself "the Community of Caring," is a Borough in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 5,236....

 in 1927.

Advertising for the company's product often emphasized its supposed convenience, modernity and purity. It was claimed to be better for digestion, and even that the "pure" coffee did not have the wakefulness effect of coffee from ground beans (a direct effect of caffeine

Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. Caffeine is found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves, and fruit of some plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants...

 content, present in both forms). After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 ended, the American military's use of the coffee became another selling point. A different avenue for promotion came when the company sponsored a "Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

" radio series on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 and the Blue Network

Blue Network

The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...

 from 1930 to 1935.

But the early instant coffee was also often considered of poor quality, of disagreeable taste, and little more than a novelty product.

Washington experienced some tax

Corporate tax

Many countries impose corporate tax or company tax on the income or capital of some types of legal entities. A similar tax may be imposed at state or lower levels. The taxes may also be referred to as income tax or capital tax. Entities treated as partnerships are generally not taxed at the...

 trouble with federal authorities

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

, concerning the financial relationship between himself and his company. In November 1918, he contracted with the company for the use of his trade secret

Trade secret

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...

s in the manufacture of the coffee, and a month later gave a four-fifths stake in this to his immediate family. The Washingtons insisted that taxes needn't be paid on the family members' income, and the case went first to the Board of Tax Appeals, and then to the Court of Appeals

United States court of appeals

The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...

, which in 1927 ruled against the Washingtons by a two-to-one decision. A petition to the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 was not accepted.

Washington's son, George Washington Jr., served for a time as treasurer of his father's company, and, like his father, dabbled in invention, patenting a widely used photoengraving

Photoengraving

Photoengraving also known as photo-chemical milling is a process of engraving using photographic processing techniques. The full form of photoengraving is photo mechanical process in the graphic arts, used principally for reproducing illustrations. The subject is photographed, and the image is...

 process for newspapers that was introduced by Fairchild Camera and Instrument

Fairchild Camera and Instrument

Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation was a company founded by Sherman Fairchild. It was based on the East Coast of the United States, and provided research and development for flash photography equipment...

 in 1948.

Military contracts

Washington's at-that-time unique product saw major use as combat ration

Combat ration

A field ration, or combat ration, is a canned or pre-packaged meal, easily prepared and eaten, transported by military troops on the battlefield...

s in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Coffee consumption on the battlefield was seen as valuable since it gave soldiers a caffeine boost. E.F. Holbrook, the head of the coffee section of the U.S. War Department

United States Department of War

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

 at the time, also considered it an important aid in recovery from mustard gas

Sulfur mustard

The sulfur mustards, or sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, are a class of related cytotoxic, vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature...

. It was employed by the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Canadian Expeditionary Force

The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were divided into field formation in France, where they were organized first into separate divisions and later joined together into a single...

 from 1914 until the American Expeditionary Force

American Expeditionary Force

The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...

 entered the war in 1917, and all production was shifted toward American military use

War economy

War economy is the term used to describe the contingencies undertaken by the modern state to mobilise its economy for war production. Philippe Le Billon describes a war economy as a "system of producing, mobilising and allocating resources to sustain the violence".Many states increase the degree of...

. New, smaller producers also sprung up to meet the incredible level of demand from the Army, which in the final period of the war was six times the national supply.

The instant coffee achieved some popularity with the soldiers, who nicknamed it

Military slang

Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. It often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or derivations of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, or otherwise incorporates aspects of...

 a "cup of George". As the prime attraction was the caffeine boost, rather than the flavor, it was sometimes drunk cold.
American emergency rations in World War I consisted of a quarter ounce

Ounce

The ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...

 (7 gram

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s) packet of double-strength instant coffee, packed one per man in containers with multiple types of foods meant for twenty-four men. Instant coffee was also used in reserve rations and trench

Trench warfare

Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...

 rations. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the U.S. military

Military of the United States

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

 again relied on Washington, but this time on an equal footing with the other major instant coffee brands that had emerged in the interwar period

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

, most notably Nescafé

Nescafé

Nescafé is a brand of instant coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in the form of many different products. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé's flagship powdered coffee product was introduced in Switzerland on April 1, 1938 after being developed for seven or eight years...

, as well as the new companies formed to meet a renewed military demand.

Fate of man and company

G. Washington Coffee Refining Company was purchased by American Home Products in 1943, and George Washington retired. The purchase of the company, which was mostly held by the family, was in exchange for 29,860 shares

Share (finance)

A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...

 (approx. $1.7 million) of American Home Products stock

Stock

The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...

, at a time when American Home Products was in a period of intense buying, purchasing 34 companies in eight years. Clarence Mark, general manager of G. Washington, succeeded Washington in running the merged unit.

In Washington's final years, he sold the "Franklin Farms" property, and lived in a home on New Vernon Road in Mendham. He died three years after his company was sold, on March 29, 1946, after an illness, at the age of 74. His funeral was held three days later.

G. Washington coffee was discontinued as a brand by 1961, when Washington's New Jersey plant was sold to Tenco, by then a division of The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...

. The last remnant of the brand survives in G. Washington's Seasoning & Broth, a sideline developed in 1938. This brand was sold by American Home Products in 2000, and, after passing through a couple of intermediaries, has been run by Homestat Farm, Ltd. since 2001.

External links

• Coffee on the Instant - chapter in The Story of a Pantry Shelf: An Outline History of Grocery Specialties
• Official site of G. Washington's Seasoning & Broth