The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1951-03-29
Early Industry Parade
Concluded from page u

which the cream would rise to the
top of the milk.
A tube into the inner chamber,
equipped with a faucet, permitted
the farmer or dairy operator to draw
off the milk first, and then the cream,
catching each in separate pans. An
other method also was to draw of
the milk through the faucet, then to
remove the inner chamber, in which
only the cream remained and which
then could be emptied into another
receptacle.
A second faucet in the separator
made it possible to draw off the
water from the outer chamber.
Separators made by the four Bluff
ton companies provided a size for
every need. They ranged from the
small two-gallon size, to large dairy
type 2O-gallon sizes. The vessels
were made of tin or copper, which
ever the purchaser preferred, and
prices ranged from low of So for
smaller sizes, to $50 for larger types.
MANUFACTURING Boom
Soon after taking out his patents,
lArras sold manufacturing rights for
the separator to John Fett and W. e..
IAugsburger, Bluffton businessmen,
who operated their manufacturing
plant under the original name of
The Arras Cream Separator Co.
Trade name of their product also re-
mained The Arras separator.
They operated in the two-story
lbrick business block on North Main
street, now occupied by the Bluffton
Slaw Cutter Co. and the Boss Glove
Factory. The entire building was
equipped with machinery specially
designed for manufacture of the sep
arator, and large force of men
was employed the year around.
Another manufacturer was the
Sanitary Cream Separator Co., trade
name The Sanitary Separator, made
by Peter Diller. The latter en-
lbarked on manufacturing pursuit
after having been in the hardware
, business for many years with A. ID.
Lugibihl in the Diller and Lugibihl
hardware.
OILERS Sanitary Separator Co. op-
Grated in a frame building located
on Cherry street now used as a
warehouse by the Triplett Electrical
Instrument Co.
Four COMPANIES
In the meantime, Lugibihl, former
hardware partner of Diller, also had
gone into the cream separator manu-
,, featuring business, on a partnership
basis with Henry d. Zehrbach.
Name of the Lugibihl-Zehrbach
venture was the Bluffton Cream Sep
arator Co., manufacturers of the
Boss separator, a company that later
was to be known as The Blutfton
Manufacturing Co., and which oper-
ated here for more than quarter
of a century before moving to Find
lay.
Started in the rear of the Lugibihl
hardware where the Ruff store and
Western Auto Supply stores now
stand, the Boss separator business
later moved to the building now oc-
cupied by the -Jorg hatchery on
Cherry street.
Bluffton's fourth manufacturer OF
cream separators was Theodore q.
Scheid, proprietor of plumbing and
sheet metal shop, who made the Per-
feet separator. He operated on the
first and second floors of the Centen-
NAL block in quarters now occupied
by The Bluffton News.
WANING BUSINESS
Just at time when the gravity
cream separator business was flour
ishing at it's best, a decline set in as
the centrifugal-type separator, used
everywhere today, became more and
more popular.
Although developed at about the
same time as the gravity-type sep
arator, an extremely high price for
many years kept the centrifugal sep
arator out of competition with those
made here, but eventually full mech
anism had it's way, and business be-
gan to fall off.
Three of the companies which had
their inception in the cream separ-
ator rush, however, were to continue
OILERS Sanitary Co. became the Dill
Ter Manufacturing Co., which later
merged with the Readrite Meter
Works. At the same time, the Bluff
ton Cream Separator Co. became the
Bluffton Manufacturing Co. and con-
tinued in business. Fett also con-
tinued in manufacturing, but in a
new partnership, joining in the Fett
and Kimmel Co. .
In these new manufacturing pur-
suits, the companies made variety
of items including gasoline engines,
corn peppers, fireless cookers, wash
ing machines, radio condensers, slaw
cutters, etc., the development of
which will be continued in succeeding
articles.