A MACHINE ON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION, FOR AGITATING AND SEPARATING CERTAIN MIX- TURES
Year: 1804

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROWNTREE, of Great Surrey Street, in the Parish of Christ Church, and
County of Surrey, Engine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
March, in the forty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Rowntree, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, that I, the said Thomas Rowntree, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A MACHINE
ON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION, FOR AGITATING AND SEPARATING CERTAIN MIX-
TURES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Thomas Rowntree, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Rowntree, do describe my improved machine for agitating and
separating certain mixtures, or compound fluids, in manner following:-
It is well known that milk is a mixture or compound of oil, lymph, serum,
and salt, the separation of which produces butter, cheese, and whey. The
serous and oleaginous parts separate after standing some time, and rise to the
top in the form of cream. From this cream, put into a churn, butter is pro-
duced by the agitation and separation of its parts. The machine which I have
invented for this purpose, and which I call my Agitating and Separating
Machine for Making Butter, and for other purposes where Agitation or Sepa-
ration is required, is represented in the annexed Drawings. It consists of a
tube or tubes, either bent or strait, for the reception of the cream, but open
at both ends, and in which are inserted breakers, with two caps at their
outer extremities, made in such a manner as to fit closely to each end of the
tube, or these caps may be loose, and fitted on or taken off at pleasure, as
occasion may require.
Fig. 1 represents an outside view of the machine, as fixed to it's frame N, N,
and hanging on it's axis or centers.
Fig. 2 represents a section of the machine, in which A, A, A, A, is an
open bent tube, with the breakers B, B, B, B, out of the tube; C, C, are the
two caps connected with the breakers, and which are so contrived as to fit
closely to the two ends of the tube; D, D, are two cross bars, placed on the
outside of the caps, and made to press against them by screws or wedges, or
in any other manner, so as to prevent the cream from running out during the
time of working or agitating the machine.
Fig. 3 is a section of the machine, with the breakers B, B, B, B, within
side; C, C, are the two caps; D, D, are the cross bars, with their screws, as
fixed for work.
Fig. 4 represents a section of a strait tube, with the same apparatus as
before described in Fig. 3, and shewing it's axis or centers E, E, on which the
machine is suspended, and moved backwards and forwards. F, is a small
opening in the upper part of the tube, Fig. 2 and 3, wherein to pour the
cream; or if it be thought preferable, the cream may be poured in at one end
of the tube while the other is closed; G, is a vent peg; H, is an end view of
one of the breakers; I, is an end view of the tube or cylinder containing the
breakers; K, is an end view of one of the caps; and L is a front view of the
cross bar, with it's screw pressing against the cap; M, is the handle, lever, o
pendulum for giving motion to the machine, such as is usual in other
machinery, to which is affixed a moveable sliding weight O, for the purpose of

page_text: adjusting or ballancing the weight of cream in the tube, so as to produce an
equilibrium in the machine, whether the quantity of the cream be small or
great.
The advantages peculiar to this new machine for churning or making
butter will appear more striking by a comparison with the disadvantages
inseparable from those heretofore made use of, whether they be barrel churns or
upright churns. It has long been a complaint against barrel churns that, from
the very nature of their construction, they are incapable of producing butter
which shall be perfectly sweet; for having only one small opening in them, just
sufficient to permit the hand and arm to enter them, it is impossible for the
fresh air to penetrate to their bottom and sides, much less to sweeten them, by
a free circulation or current. Hence arises that sour or rancid smell which
is always perceived in the barrel churn, even after it has been scalded and
scoured and cleansed with the greatest care, and which adheres to the inside
of the vessel in the same manner as foul air docs in a well that has been long
closed. The upright churn is liable to the same objection, and retains the
same rancid smell after use, though in a smaller degree, for even in this churn'
a free circulation of air cannot by any means be obtained, but the foul air
constantly remains attached to the bottom and sides, and renders the churn
unfit for the production of sweet butter. This complaint, however, is completely
remedied in my improved machine for making butter; for, as the part which
contains the cream consists of a tube or a cylinder, as before described, open
at both ends, and having a cap to each, which is fitted on and taken off at
pleasure, it is evident that the whole of the inside, as well as the breakers and
the caps at each end, may be as easily cleaned and as perfectly sweetened by
exposure to a current or circulation of fresh air as any utensil belonging to the
dairy. Another disadvantage peculiar to the barrel churn consists in this, that a
considerable part of the cream which is intended to be converted into butter
rolls smoothly along the bottom of the churn when put into a rotatory motion;
without ever being obstructed by the breakers, and consequently without any
chance of producing the desired effect; for in order to procure the greatest
possible quantity of butter from a given quantity of cream, it is absolutely neces-
sary that every portion of the cream be violently agitated and dashed against the
breakers. It is plain, therefore, that in the common barrel churn a less quan
tity of butter is procured than the cream is capable of yielding, and although
the loss sustained each time of churning may be thought little of, yet in large
dairies it will be found very considerable in the course of a year. The same
disadvantage belongs to the upright churn, for in that also the cream suffers
only a partial agitation, by no means sufficient to produce the quantity of

page_text: butter which might be expected.. This imperfection, which all machines here:
tofore used for the purpose of making butter are alike subject to, finds no
place in my new and improved churn; but the whole body of the cream is
dashed with violence against the breakers, in every motion of the machine
backwards and forwards, so that not the smallest portion of the fluid is suffered
to glide, along in an equable.or.upiform manner, but each part. is.alike broken
and driven in, all possible. directions, the consequence of, which is, that, more
butter is procured with my churn from a given quantity of cream than,with
any other heretofore made public. Beside the above advantages, which.are
peculiar to my improved machine for making butter, the ease, with which it
may be worked is an additional recommendation to it, more especially as it
requires in the person using it neither judgment nor experience in the art of
making butter, but may safely.be entrusted to the, management of a child. I
therefore submit it to the public as a necessary and most valuable.utensil.in
the dairy, not doubting but it will be found.on_trial an improvement. of real
utility, and well calculated, not only to make butter in the greatest. quantity,
but what is of much more importance, to produce it in it's utmost purity and
sweetness..
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Rowntree, have hereunto set-my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and four.
THOS ROWNTREE. (L.B.)
AND, BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twentieth day of April,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Rowntree came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein. contained, in, form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor
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