A SIMPLE MILK-TESTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2292, 19 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SIMPLE MILK-TESTER.

Another adaptation of centrifugal force to the requirements of the dairy has been brought under the notice of the public. This is a milk-tester, which was exhibited at the Smithtiold show last December. The machine consists of a spindle with cross-arms; at the extremities of these arms a small bottle is placed horizontally ; the, bottle is graduated with a scale of marks, zero being the mark up to winch it is filled with milk, arid this zero end must, of course, be placed nearest the spindle. Upon the whole being revolved the milk, being heavier, flies to the bottom end of the test-bottle, leaving the quantity of cream to be road off by the graduated scale. The machine is illustrated in a recent issue of the Mark Lane Express, and that paper in writing about it says : — "This machine will be found to possess all those features which the farmer, dairyman or analyst would desire in such an apparatus. It is simple, cannot get out of order is easily worked by any one, and will give an exact indication of the richness of any sample of milk in two or three minutes in any kind of weather, Four samples can be tested at once. The milk may be tested either cold or warm —the best temperature being from GOdeg to 70 deg Fahr. It may be tested either whole or diluted with water, proper allowance being made, when reading the scale, for the water added. The scale is graduated for all milk. It will thus be seen that what! this apparatus does is to show, quickly and accurately, at any time, the proportion of cream contained in any sample of milk. This proportion, as every one knows, may be taken as furnishing the best possible criterion of the quality of the milk. Pure milk should show at least 10 to 12 per cent, of cream on the scale, and first-class milk will often show considerably more. A. machine on a similar principle was invented some years ago by a Merman dairy chemist, and was figured in an English publication in 1878 ; but a member of the firm of Watson and Laidlaw, of Kingston, Glasgow, saw how to construct the present simple little machine to carry out the idea in a form which has much mechanical merit. The sole agents for Great Britain are Messrs Freeth and Pocock, of 74, Wandsworth road, Vauxha.ll, London, S.W."