IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPERTAINING TO APPARATUS OR VESSELS APPLICABLE FOR HOLDING, MEASURING, SKIMMING, OR TESTING 9 PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Mary Anne Fox, Widow and Administratrix of Howard
Busby Fox, late of Oxton, in the County of Chester, deceased, for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPERTAINING TO APPARATUS OR
VESSELS APPLICABLE FOR HOLDING, MEASURING, SKIMMING, OR TESTING
9
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Howard Busby Fox at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th May 1881.
HOWARD BUSBY Fox, of Oxton, in the County of Chester.
"IMPROVEMENTS
IN AND APPERTAINING TO APPARATUS OR VESSELS APPLICABLE FOR HOLDING,
MEASURING, SKIMMING, OR TESTING MILK."
This Invention has for its object an apparatus that will act at the same time as
a skimmer, as a measurer, as an ordinary milk bowl, and as an automatic detector
of adulteration.
It consists in a pan or bowl of any ordinary material with a threaded hole in
the bottom. In the centre I place a vertical glass tube projecting above the top
of the pan or bowl with openings in the side near the bottom, and a base with a
screw below fitting the threaded hole in the pan. I usually place an india-rubber
disc or washer between the tube and the pan to avoid chance of leakage.
Inside the tube I place a specific gravity testing float graduated and weighted
for water and milk.
In using the apparatus the tube is screwed down tight and the float placed
therein; the milk is then poured in. The graduations on the conical sides of the
pan give the measurement, the float shows the specific gravity, and roughly, if
water be the only adulterant, the purity or otherwise of the milk. To skim, all
that is required is to unscrew the tube till the milk leaks out through the hole,
and let the run continue till only the top stratum, the cream, is left; then screw
down tight and decant the cream.
Instead of the milk going through the screwed hole, I prefer to let it go through
one, two, or more holes placed round it, and sometimes instead of the washer
covering these holes I may in very cheap articles have a single hole and cork to
let out the milk. My lactometer is made longer and smaller than usual, so as to
fit nicely into the tube, and at the same time be made more sensitive.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent (and
of an Order of the Lord Chancellor) filed by the said Mary Anne Fox in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th January 1882.
MARY ANNE Fox, Widow and Administratrix of Howard Busby Fox, late of
Oxton, in the County of Chester, deceased. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPER-
TAINING TO APPARATUS OR VESSELS APPLICABLE FOR HOLDING, MEASURING,
SKIMMING, OR TESTING MILK."
This Invention has for its object an apparatus that will act at the same time as
a skimmer, as a measurer, as an ordinary milk bowl, and as a tester of the quality
of the milk and the amount of cream.
It is best described by aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a
plan and Fig. 2 a sectional clevation.
A is a milk bowl graduated on the side, so as to measure the quantity of milk
contained therein; B, glass tube inside bowl, graduated at C, so as to test the
quality of the milk and the quantity of the cream and supplied with a lactometer D.
This tube is screwed to the projecting screw E in the bottom of the bowl, and has
an india-rubber washer F between its base and the bottom of the bowl. Beneath
the washer there are a series of holes G cut in the bowl to let the milk through
when the washer is not tight down, and the stud or screw E is grooved at the side,
as shown, so that at the same time that the tube is screwed up to allow the milk
to escape the milk in the tube escapes also through the grooves in the screw or
stud and through the holes G. The stud or screw E and the base of tube B should
be made of metal or hard vulcanite, compressed cotton or celluloid, or other suitable
material. By celluloid I mean nitro-cellulose compounds dissolved in solvents and
afterwards deprived of surplus solvent, so that they become hard.
The mode of action is as follows:-The milk is poured into the tube till it
reaches the highest point of scale C, when the lactometer is in, the remainder of the
milk is poured into the bowl and the height read off on the scale, this scale being
marked for the total quantity of milk, including that in the tube. The quantity
of milk as read off on the scale serves to check the milkman's measure, instantly
informing the purchaser if the quantity be deficient.
The lactometer also shows if the milk has been adulterated by water, and if so,
to what amount; but if any of the cream has been withdrawn and water
substituted the lactometer will not indicate the deceit, but the cream gauge will
at once expose it.
The next morning before skimming the milk the scale E is examined to see the
exact quantity of cream, and by this means the richness of the milk is ascertained.
The tube is then gently screwed up. The milk inside runs out through the
groove, joining that in the bowl, the two then finding the same vent, namely, the
hole or holes G below the washer. The cream, being lighter, is the last to escape,
and thus the milk is skimmed, the cream remaining behind to the last, being poured
into a separate vessel.
The apparatus is also applicable for skimming oils or chemicals, or, in fact, any
liquid which requires skimming.
Having now described my late husband's Invention, and the best mode known
to me of carrying it into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not bind
myself to the exact form of apparatus herein described, as while I consider that
form the best one embodying my said husband's improvements it will easily be
seen that the same could be altered without departing from the spirit of his
Invention; thus, for instance, instead of having a glass at E the same could
be replaced by a long stopper, which would be useful for dairies. What I do
claim is,-
First. The apparatus applicable for holding and skimining milk, consisting of a
bowl, preferably graduated for measuring the contents, and fitted with a vent provided

page_text: with a valve or stopper rising above the milk or capable of being partially opened,
so that any quantity of milk can be withdrawn at any time without disturbing
the cream and then the vent be stopped again when required, substantially as
described.
Second. The glass tube, preferably capable of holding and floating a lactometer
or specific gravity float, which cannot be done in an ordinary bowl holding a quart
of milk rising above or beyond the body of the milk in a milk bowl, and
graduated so as to show the amount or percentage of cream in the milk.
Third. The general arrangement and construction of apparatus or vessel, as
herein described and shown, no claim being made for any one part taken separately,
but only when used in conjunction with the others for the purposes of holding,
measuring, skimming, or testing milk.
In witness whereof, I, the said Mary Anne Fox, Administratrix of the said
Howard Busby Fox, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourth
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
eighty two.
MARY ANNE FOX. (L.S.)