LARGEST CHURN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1940, Page 8

LARGEST CHURN

ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT. NEW ZEALAND PRODUCT. The largest internal worker churn, which makes 56001 b. of butter in one churning, is the outstanding exhibit in one section of the engineering and electrical court at the Centennial Exhibition, Wellington. The churn, made of kauri and with its machinery machined and assembled in New Zealand, is entirely a Dominion product. It is drawing considerable attention from town and country visitors to the Exhibition from all parts of New Zealand, and as it is a working model its interest is greatly enhanced. Mr C. S. Woodbury, who is in charge of the exhibit, explained that the churn can handle two and a half tons of butter in a churning of one and a half to two hours. The'unloading of the churn has caused much speculation, according to Mr. Woodbury. A specially designed wooden table, capable of unloading one-third of the total churning at one time, is run into the churn on a trolley and backed away with its load.

The barrel of the churn is a beautifully made receptacle built from specially hand-selected kauri by experienced craftsmen. Mr. Woodbury explained that both kauri and teak have been used in the construction of these churns, but that the New Zealand wood is just as good as teak and easier and lighter to handle.

There are about four of these 56001 b. churns at present in operation in large Waikato dairy factories. The barrel has a diameter of 9ft. Bin„ and in it ar6 four revolving “workers,” grooved beams which turn in the opposite direction to the barrel itself when the churn is in motion. A special set of valves is fitted to drain off butter milk and all of the machinery is neat and simple in operation. The barrel weighs eight tons and the complete churn, with machinery, has a total weight of 15 tons. The churn revolves at a rate of 27 revolutions a minute.