Melitta Bentz was a German entrepreneur who invented the coffee filter and founded the company Melitta, which still sells coffee, coffee filters, and coffee machines to this day. While making coffee, Bentz found that percolators would often over-brew the coffee, the drink would have grounds, and linen bag filters were tiresome to clean. That is why she started experimenting with ways to make coffee cleaner and less bitter. Eventually, Bentz tried to use her son’s blotting paper from a school book and a brass pot punctured with a nail. The experiment was a success and in 1908, Bentz was granted a patent for it and founded her company.