What Is It? - #24

S

SifuPhil

R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
Here we have a rather large table-top device dating from the first decade of the 1900's.

mystery antique 24.jpg

It came in three sizes - the #10, #11 and #12 - and was manufactured in Bainbridge, New York.

What Is It?
 

Awwww ...

That's okay, Phantom - it'll probably still be unsolved tomorrow, but with this bunch you never know - they're a clever lot at times.

Happy slumbering! :D
 

Phantom said:
Not quite ready ...... IS IT A CREAM SEPERATOR ?
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Wow.


DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner after only 4 responses!!! I think this is a record ...

This item is indeed a cream separator. It is called the American Wonder and was manufactured by the American Separator Company.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The American Wonder cream separator came in three sizes, a No. 10 rated at 125 pounds of milk per hour, a No. 11 rated at 200 pounds and a No. 12 rated at 300 pounds. The separator pictured here is a No. 10. The No. 10 and 11 were similar with the cream supply can mounted on top of the spouts and the valve was at the bottom of the can. The No. 12 had the can off set with the valve on the side of the can. These separators had very ornate decals when they were new. [/FONT]

Congrats to Phantom and to That Guy, who gets a Runner-Up award for his inspired yet cautious reply of "some kinda separator" !!! ;)



*puts on evil genius hat, cracks fingers and begins a serious stumper-search*
 
Anne said:
Wow, SifuPhil!!! They are keeping you hopping today!!! :wow:
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They certainly are - I should have saved the Oomphalapapa... - that weird musical thing - as a What Is It. It would have been years before they got that one!

Hope you are feeling better!!!
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Thanks. It's from being stabbed in the kidney with a kung-fu sword many years ago - occasionally I pass blood and little pieces and this was just a bad episode. I'm stretching a bit more now to get rid of the stiffness.
 
My folks used to have an old cream separator, and it was a larger one that stood on the floor. There must be another spout that doesn't show in your picture, because the milk has to come out one spout and the cream comes out a different one. Then you can take the cream and churn your butter, or whatever you are going to do with it.
 
Happyflowerlady said:
My folks used to have an old cream separator, and it was a larger one that stood on the floor. There must be another spout that doesn't show in your picture, because the milk has to come out one spout and the cream comes out a different one. Then you can take the cream and churn your butter, or whatever you are going to do with it.
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According to the description I found for this the milk actually came out through the base frame - the only other picture I could find that possibly shows this is this one:

ay76c.jpg

That little fitting in the front on the lower part of the frame might be where the milk was tapped out. Not sure, and I'm sorry for any confusion.
 
View attachment 1283You must be right, Sifu. I have been looking at the pictures that you posted, and I can't see any place for either milk or cream to come out other than the one spout, so maybe the milk comes out the main spout, and the cream comes out from the bottom of the container somehow. It looks to me like that would make it pretty hard to clean if it was the heavy cream, and inefficient for the milk, since there is only about 1-2 cups of cream in a gallon of rich milk.
Here is a picture that looks more like the one my folks used on the farm, back in the old days, when they had cows.
I once had a milk cow, but I just let the cream rise overnite, and then dipped it off for using in our coffee. There is just nothing as delicious as fresh cream in a piping hot cup of morning coffee !
 
View attachment 1284Ok, puzzle solved ! Here is another picture of one of the little cream separators , and there is actually a little spigot where the milk pours out. So they can set the gallon milk container under that, and then catch the cream in a small container on the table. Or maybe it is the other way around.
Just guessing here, but it seems to make sense.
Love the quizzes....
 
Ah, there you go - mystery solved!

Thank you!

As a city boy, the only separator I've seen between milk and cream is those little plastic dividers on the grocer's shelves. I actually thought that milk and cream were two different substances - that milk came from regular cows and cream from very mellow, slow-moving cows.:rolleyes:

I'm actually learning a lot from this board and have all of you to thank for it.
 
Did anyone notice it was made out of what looks like galvenised iron.
Today in the food industy that is a NO-NO, everything has to be made
out of stainless steel!:rolleyes:
 
View attachment 1285Sifu , you haven't lived until you try Country Life. Here is a picture to stir your enthusiasm for dairy farms.

You are at least partially right about different cows giving more cream ! Different breeds of cows DO give different quality of milk, and the same with goats.
Big cows like a Holstein give a lot of milk, but not as creamy as a small guernsey cow, who gives wonderful rich milk.

Holsteins are better for big dairies, where milk is sold in quantity, but a Guernsey or Jersey is a great family cow, less milk, but an extremely gentle cow, and super creamy milk.
Goats are perfect for 1-2 people, but the cream stays "homogenized" , so you actually need a separator to get the cream from goats milk.
 
I'm just wondering how difficult it is to haul the separator up into that tree every day, or are those goats on a pulley system?

And I would imagine that tree-goat milk must taste a bit green ...

Now see, my WAG (wild-assed guess) turned out to be at least partially right! Story of my life! ;)
 
Must admit it was easy for me
My dad had a cow and he used to do his separating with something similar,,,,,,,,,,Long time ago I was about 6 yrs old
Mum made her own butter I can still remember the wooden paddles :)
 
Phantom, I remember the old butter churns also, with the hand crank and wooden paddles. If a person had never seen one before, it would be great for one of the "what is it " pictures even !
We used to make our own butter sometimes, too, but we did not have one of the old butter churns, so we just put the cream in a jar, ad passed it around to everyone in the family and took turns shaking it, until it finally turned into butter. It was kind of a long process, and not much butter at the other end of all that shaking, so we didn't do it very often, we usually just used the cream otherwise, or left it in the milk for wonderful whole milk, which the kids absolutely loved.
 

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