The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-03-06
TO MILK THE cows WITH.
The Strange Machine Eeotchnan Has Devised
How II Works.

How It Works.
Three or four miles pleasant ride
from the town of Kilmarnock, one of
the centres of the dairying interests Of
Ayrshire, is the dairy farm of Haining
Mains, on the estate of the Duke of
Portland. Here for some months
past, " says the London Times "a new
milking machine, invented by Mr..
William Murchland. sanitary engineer,
OF Kllmarnock, has been in operatio n.
the tenant of tho farm, Mr.. David
Shaw, having afforded every facility.
Many schemes have been devised for
the automatic or mechanical milking
of cows.
zone after another they have been
tried, and found wanting and discard
ed. In some of them the barbarous
practice of forcing tube into the teat
of cow has been resorted to, with
the result that the animals subie cted
to the treatment have been permanent
ly injured, even to be unable to retain
their milk. In most of them the milk
has been withdrawn on the pneumatic
principle, by reducing the pressure
within the milk-bag below that of the
normal atmospheric pressure outside
it. This, indeed, is the principle un-
DERIVING the Murchland milking ma
chine. with, however, the difference
that, whereas in all previous attempts
the apparatus has only been applicable
to one COW at time, by means Of the
new machine any number OF cows can
be MIXED simultaneously.
THE apparatus is OF very simple
character. An ordinary iron pipe,
one inch in diameter, is carried round
the COW house at convenient height
above the shoulders of the COW. 1t
communicates with hand-pump,
whereby the air is drawn from the
pipe, circular tank connected with a
shallow we'll Of water serving as
regulator of the vacuum. From the
iron pipe project connections, one op-
posite the space between every pair
of animals, each connection being fur
nished with a stop-cock. To any one
of these connections is fitted leng tn
OF India rubber tubing, the other end
being attached to nozzle near the
top of the milk pail, which is of special
construction. The pail is cylindrical
in form, with a truncated conical top.
Its opening, which is four inches wide,
is closed by means of a thick glass
disk, which rests inside flush with the
outer rim of the pail. supported by
thick rubber band, held in place by
projecting ledge underneath. On one
side of the shoulder of the pail is the
nozzle which has been referred to, and
on the opposite side are four similar
nozzles, all Of which are like the
small connections upon the iron pipe.
The solitary nozzle is for attachment
to the long flexible tube from the ir on
pipe; the other four arc for short
lengths OF tubing. connected in their
turn with specially constructed teat
cups, each of which receives a teat OF
the cow under operation. The cups.
like the pail, are made OF timed iron
and each one is provided with tap
or stopcock. The milk pail has, in
addition to it's handle, couple of
hooks, by means Of which it is sus-
pended little in front of the cows
udder. broad band of girthing being
laid across the animals loins for the
purpose.
1.-The modus operandi is very simple.
When it is ready the pump is worked
by lad, and the air is thus exhausted
from the iron pipe. Then a pail, with
its teat cups attached, is adjusted un-
der the COW, the long tube is joined to
one of the connections overhead, the
stopcock is opened, and a partial
vacuum is established within the pail.
Next one OF the teat cups is moistened
and placed so as to embrace the teat;
the stopcock of the cup, is then opened,
the teat is thus brought under the in
fluecce of the vacuum. and the greater
external atmospheric pressure at once
causes the milk to flow. After all four
teat cups have thus been adjusted, four
jets of milk can be seen flowing into
the can Immediately beneath the glass
cover. In from eight to ten minutes
the COW is MIXED dry and the stop
cock of the connection on the iron pipe
being turned off, the long India rubber
tube is detached from the pail, thus
destroying the vacuum. The pail with
its teat cups is taken away, the milk is
poured out and the appara tus is ready
for another COW.
Curious Statistics.
Statistics are not always dull. and
the following, collected by an industri-