The piston machine, developed in Italy,
1945, by Achille Gaggia, uses a lever which is pumped by the operator to
pressurize the hot water. The water is
then sent through the grounds, and espresso is produced! The term “pulling a shot” was created by
this pulling action. There are two types of the piston machine: the
manual and the spring. The operate
pushes uses the lever to force the water directly down through the grounds
using manual-piston machine. The spring-piston
machine is different in that the operator creates a tension in the spring
which applies pressure to the grounds and extracts the espresso. |
Figure
4: Piston-driven espresso maker with
labels.
