IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF DEVONSHIRE OR OTHER CREAM AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR”
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Horner of Cuddington in the county of Chester
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE
OF DEVONSHIRE OR OTHER CREAM AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Horner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd August 1883.
WILLIAM HORNER of Cuddington in the county of Choster
" 'IMPROVEMENTS
IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF DEVONSHIRE OR OTHER CREAM, AND IN
APPARATUS THEREFOR
"
This invention has for its object the manufacture of "Devonshire
or clotted
cream, and of cream from which cream cheeso is made, in a better manner, and so
as to produce a better product, than formerly. It consists in the heating of the
cream or milk in vessels by steam, by which means I get a perfectly uniform heat
with maximum effect, without the smoky taste nearly always perceptible when
heated in the ordinary way. My experimental apparatus, which answers well,
consists of a jacketted vat with a bottom sloping to the outlot, and with steam
tubes circulating in the jacket thereof, perforated and having fixed chocks or
circulators, so as to spread the steam uniformly over the bottom of the vat. This
apparatus is equally applicable for use in making clotted or Devonshire cream;
scalded cream, or raising cream from milk, and separating the milk from the cream
when risen. The cream while still at, or at a given heated temperature is poured
into jars, pots, or other receptacles, and covered with material sufficiently
impervious as to keep out deleterious germs. This apparatus is equally applicablo
for cooling milk, cold water, or other fluid, or cooling medium being used in tho
tubes and jacket, and also in the vat cover or lid, which is so formed that any
condensed moisture is carried to side or end of vat and runs into a tube or gutter
with the overflows; thus preventing any water or condensed moisture from
dropping into the milk or cream
In using it for a separator, the milk is left to stand till the cream separates,
when the skim milk is drawn off from below, and stopped automatically when it
comes to cream. This is done by forming the orifices leading to the exit or exits

page_text: of such small breadth, that while they will admit milk under a considerable head,
they will not allow the thicker cream under a diminished head to pass. This cover
can be partially or wholly raised by mechanical means. The apparatus has also a
movable spring which can be adjusted to stop the flow at any given pressure or
when the pressure reaches a given minimum The apparatus also indicates, by
means of a glass covered aperture, the presence of the cream as soon as it
approaches the outlet, so that the flow can be at once stopped or slackened at
pleasure, also this apparatus is so formed at or about the centre, that by means of
an agitator the milk is agitated at the extreme bottom of the vat, causing the
extraneous matter which may still remain (after careful straining), to flow out
with the skim milk, leaving the cream clean and pure and fit for any purpose.
In order to make the cream keep better, I add to it previous to it being heated
in the pan, any antiseptic that may be required. The advantage of putting it in
at this juncture is that the ingredients got thoroughly mixed and acted upon, and
the disagreeable taste, that is caused by uncombined antiseptic is thus avoided.

page_text: M is a
the milk passes easily, but cream being thicker, passes with more difficulty or not
at all, there can be channels in the bottom of the vat instead of nicks in the pipe,
but the nicks are preferable. The office of these nicks is further to draw the milk
sideways from the very bottom, and thus avoid vortices in the milk or the drawing
down of the cream from above. H is a plug at the bottom of this hole to close the
outlet to the contents when required. I a valve below the plug, this valve is held
up by a spring J not sufficiently powerful of itself to keep it to its seat against a full
head of milk, but when the milk has partly run out and the head lessened the
spring has more available power for closing the valve. It can thus be regulated to
close the valve automatically when the contents are at any required height in the
vat, this regulating is done by screwing up the tube L onto the bottom of tube K
so as to screw back the spring to the required degree of compression. At Z Z in
tubes M and G are glass panels through which the milk can be examined visually
and the presence of cream at once detected as it approaches the ontlet.
continuation of the outside jacket around the plug-well G. N is an overflow slot
shut by a sliding door and handle P but capable of being opened to any required
extent. Where desirable as in hot countries pockets can be made in the jacket for
inserting ice but I have not found them necessary in the English climate at my
own works. R is a channel fixed partly round the jacket to carry off overflow
water. S is the hollow or jacketted cover. This cover has a pipe or nozzle opening
into it at each end, and when it is used for cooling or heating these nozzles can
be connected with pipes by rubber hose or otherwise, and hot or cold water.
circulated through them and the jacketted cover. As when in the operation of
cooling, moisture condenses on the under surface to carry this off and prevent it
from dropping into the milk or cream, I rivet or braze to the under side of this
cover a series of longitudinal channels X, each pair formed of a single plate curled
round till its two edges turned up under it form shallow troughs. Water collecting
on the under surface of the cover runs down and passes off at the ends by these
troughs. Fig. 10 is a scraper for scraping the bottom formed of rubber or other
blocks preferably set in a frame V-with a handle W, other materials than rubber
will do, wood for instance, but I prefer rubber to any other material I have yet
tried. This scraper can be pushed about a tank, which is preferably about three
feet wide, by hand, and any deposit scraped off. Of course springs can be used
instead of weights if desired, they make a slightly lighter job but are more
likely to be broken, the frame has to be heavier so as to weight them.
The mode of operation is as follows:
If the apparatus be required for raising cream or skimming, the milk is let into
the vat and allowed to stand, the temperature being regulated if desired by sending
hot or cold water through the pipe C. When the cream has risen the plug is
removed and the milk slowly percolates through the nicks in tube G, till the milk
has fallen so low that the valve shuts off the further outflow, or the cream gets too
thick to pass either the nicks in G or the narrow outlet round the valve, or the
attendant seeing cream draining out shuts down the plug. To scald this cream or
make Devonshire or clotted cream of it, the cream requires to be heated. I there-
fore put the cream into the vat in the ordinary manner of making Devonshire or
clotted cream and turn on steam below till sufficiently done. The steam is then
turned off, and the cream preferably in its heated stato run into jars and sealed.
The scraper serves to clean the vat and prevent deposits while working.
Having thus described my invention and the best means known to me of carrying
it into effect I wish it to be understood that what I believe to be new and claim
under the Letters Patent is :
1st. The manufacture and use of the apparatus for the manufacture of Devonshire
or other cream constructed arranged and combined substantially as and for the
purpose herein described, and also the following parts thereof taken separately
when used each substantially as and for the purposes described. The pipe F with
numerous orifices round its base-The glass panel G arranged in combination with
the surrounding parts. The jacketted pan with heating and cooling pipe within.

page_text: The valve I in exit orifice counter-weighted to close at a given minimum head. The
combination of spring J and tube K capable of being screwed up and so of
adjusting J. The jacketted cover of cream vat. The longitudinal channels X in
same formed of curled plates or their equivalents. The perforated pipes C with
laths D. The adjustable saddles E carrying laths D on pipes C. The sliding doors
P and slots N with overflow channel in pan A. The scraper formed of weighted
or springed blocks in frame.
2nd. The improvement in the process of manufacturing scalded or Devonshire
cream, which consists in heating the material by means of steam admitted to
contact with the outer surface of the vessel in which the material is placed,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof I the said William Horner have hereunto set my band and
Seal this thirty first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and eighty four.
WILLIAM HORNER (L.S.)