The Syphon coffee maker was designed in Berlin around 1830. Over the years, there have been several variations, regarding to the material of the chambers (usually glass), as well as the filter (cloth, plastic, etc). A Syphon device extracts coffee using water boiling in the bottom glass chamber that due to vapor pressure, is pushed up into the top chamber, where it is mixed with ground coffee. When the heat is removed, coffee passes through the filter into the bottom chamber, leaving the spent grinds in the top chamber (re-usable filter included). This is coffee geekery to the max!