Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-11-03
SEPARATION OF BUTTER FROM
MILK
BY Means of the Hand-An interest
ing Exhibit OF the Pennsylvania
College Agricultural Experi-
ment Station,

ing Exhibit OF the pennsylvania
College Agricultural Expert
ment Station.
Bulletin No, 20 of the Pennsylvania
State College Agricultural Experiment
station (Stare College P. o., Penn.) de-
scribes a series of experiments in the
separation of butter milk by means
of hand or "baby" separation. Fol-
lowing is a summary of the result, with
a brief account of the principles upon
which the working of the separator de-
pends.
The mechanical separation of cream
from milk by means of the centrifugal
separator has become almost universal
in large creameries, the cost OF the
machines and of the power required to
run them being more than offset by the
greater Weld Uf butter obtained, the
smaller amount of space required, the
saving in ice, and the greatar certainty
and uniformity Of operation.
Within comparatively short time
several small separators have been put
on the market, which, it. Is claimed ,
can be operated by hand and are suta-
BILE for the use Of the private dalryman.
This station has recently completed
.ome tests of one of the best known OF
these hand separators, manufactured
Ey the De Laval Separator company,
aud called by them the "Baby No. 2"
This machine was kindly placed at the
station for test by the company. The
results of the test are briefly rs follows:
l. The skim milk contained, in
most cases, less than 5-100 of one per
cent. of butter-fat.
2. Out of the total possible amount
of butter, but 9.10 of one per cent. was
lost in the skim milk, and but 81 per
cent. in the skim milk, buttermilk and
mechanical losses, or, in other words,
963 per cent. of the totsl raw material
(butter-fat) was recovered in the fin-
ish butter.
8. 1t is estimated that the saving by
the use of this machine as compared
with the use of cold deep setting will,
in one year, with herd Of twenty TO
twenty-five COWS, equal three-fourths
the cost of the machine.
4. The machine has proved very
satisfactory in the regular work OF the
station creamery.
5. The use of hand dover is only to
be recommended for small dairies.
HOW A SEPARATOR WORKS.
The fat of milk Is its most valuable
constituent and the one which the
buttermaker aims to separate from 1t as
completely as Iossible. This fat exists
in the milk in the form of extremely
minute globules floating in heavier
liauid. When we let milk stand UNI
disturbed these minute globules rise
toward the top and accumulate in the
upper part of the milk, crowding out a
considerable portion of the liquid in
which they ARE suspended. This up
Der part of The milk, where the minute
fat globules are the most numerous, is
the cream. 1t is plain from this ex-
planation that we may get more or less
bulk of cream from the same milk ac-
cording to the time allowed for the
globules to rise and according as they
are able to crowd out the liquid more
or less completely; consequently the
bulk of the cream is a very Inaccurate
measure of the butter value of milk, @
fact which has been proved by abund-
ant experience.
The object of a separator Is to hasten
this process by substituting centrifugal
force for gravity. II we swing bucket
of water rapidly around at arms
length we feel pull on the arm. This
is caused by the so. called centrifugal
force, the force which tends to make 9
revolving body move away from the
center OF motion. The faster we swing
pail the greater is the pull and accurate
experiments have shown that the cen
trifugal force increases the square of til
velocity--that is to say, If We swing tbt
bucket twice as fast the pull becomes
four times as great, if We swing 1t thret
times as fast it becomes nine times a
great, and so on. If we were to pu
milk in the bucket In place of wate
and swing 1t very fast the centrifuga
force would pull the milk against th,
bottom Of the bucket just as gravity
does when the bucket is at rest, tn,
only difference being that, If the buck
ct were swung very rapidly the centri
fugal force would be much greater thar
gravity and the pull on the milk cor
TespondingIy great. The result woult
be that the cream would rise to tn
surface OF the milk just as 1t would un
der the influence of gravity, but NOR
rapidly in proportion as the centrifuga
force was greater than the force O
gravity.
The earliest centrifugal separator wa
constructed exactly on this plan, tn
milk being revolved rapidly In smal
buckets by means OF suitable mechani
cal contrivances. In this apparatu
the cream could be raised in fror
fifteen to twenty minutes. The mex
step in the development of the ms
chine was to replace the series of bucf
cts by bowl rotating about a vertics
axis. The next step forward, aud til
one which made the separator of pract
cal valne, was the construction by q
Laval, in 1870, of machine for cor
tinuous separation--that is, one int
which milk could be run at areguls
rate as long as desired and separate
into cream and skim milk.
Admitted the Facts.
Newspaper editors haveto be very caref