Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-07


the numerous sterilizers which are offered
for sale in all of our large towns. Of these
the best known are one in which the bottles
are partially submerged in boiling water,
and another which furnishes, as a receptacle
for the milk, chamber of live steam.
Both these sterilizers now come fur
nished with round bottomed bottles, which
are not only more easily cleaned, but
are less readily broken by repeated heatings
than the fat bottles
A variety of shoppers have been success
fully used; rubber, cork or cotton, but for
home use nothing equals for convenience
and efficiency the double cork of rubber and
glass The initial expense is greater, but
the saving of time and the superiority of
result more than compensates for this ex-
penditure. There is an apparatus for sale
in Germany, and in America another is in
private use at a sterilIzing farm, which
obviates the necessity for double shoppers,
by corking the bottles during the process of
sterilization, without opening the machine.
But these even if they were offered for sale
In this country, would be very expensive,
and therefore not available for family use.
Details of the Process.
The water that is put into the sterilizer
must be cold: it should be raised in temper
ature gradually, or there is danger that the
bottles will break. The bottles are to be
filed only to within an inch of the top, in
order to leave room for the milk to expand
under the heat The slotted or perforated
corks, whichever are used, should be put
into the bottles before they are placed in
the sterilizer. Having closed the apparatus
place it over q gentle fire, and allow it to
remain about 90 minutes, at the end of that
time the slotted corks may be pushed firm
lv down into the mouth of the bottles; or
the perforated corks should have the glass
point pressed into the opening, after which
the sterilizer may be closed again for the
final bottling. Forty minutes additional
heating, one hour in all, will usually be
fair average for milk in tolerably good
condition.
If no sterilizer can be procured, fair
substitute may be improvised with a COM
mon double steamer, such as is used to cook
potatoes, empty ginger ale bottles thor
oughly washed will answer to hold the
milk and ordinary raw cotton made into
solid wads will serve as corkA In an emer-
gency ordinary fruit jars will serve to
steam the milk in. None of the devices are
however, any permanent gain, as the break
age is necessarily great and the results less
favorable.
The length of time necessary to sterilize
milk depends upon its age and varies with
the apparatus that is used. The time as
given by various experimenters runs from
80 minutes to three hours. 1t is wise in the
beginning of the work for a mother to set
aside one bottle every day to test the eff
cheney of the process. The bottle should
be placed in a warm room of from 400 to
700 Fahrenheit. If the milk TURNS within
4S hours the steaming is insufficient If it
remains good for from four to seven days,
it is safe to feed to the child. Milk ster-
ilized at home which will keep longer than
this is usually overheated, and thereby so
much changed in composition as to lose
some of its value as food,
To dilute sterilized milk one should al
ways use water that has been boiled; for
water is, after milk, one of the most favor
able elements for the propagation of bac-
terra, and may any time add to the milk
just those germs which we have been At
such pains to eliminate.
FRANCES FISHER WOOD.