De Laval Cream Separators

De Laval Separator Co., De Laval Cream Separators, Farm and Dairy Sizes, 1913,

Above: Cover

Below: Illustrating the Automatic Oiling of an Improved De Laval Cream Separator

To celebrate National Dairy Month...

Located in the Smithsonian Libraries' Trade Literature Collection, the De Laval Cream Separators catalog from 1913 features over seventy pages of illustrations and articles.  Published by the De Laval Separator Company, ten centrifugal-based cream separator models are showcased with schematics detailing their special features and construction. Their largest cream separator, the 'Improved No. 22,' separated 675 quarts per hour, while their smallest, the 'Improved No. 19,' separated 340 quarts per hour. Though intended to be powered by hand, De Laval Separator Company did offer specially adapted electric motors for their machines. In addition, various topics are covered concerning cream production and the implementation of De Laval Cream Separators.

In 1877, Carl Gustaf Patrik De Laval "evolved the first continuous separator, which discharged the cream and skim-milk separately while the milk was being fed into the machine, and its commercial manufactures was begun in 1878." De Laval's company, which has included the De Laval Separator Company, still exists today, focusing on dairy-related endeavors.—Mary Jinglewski, with assistance from Jim Roan

Comments

[Shirley]

I am trying to date an old hit and miss engine and I was hoping you would be able to give me some direction with this. I have all the information from the engine.
In advance Thank you for any assistance.
Shirley

[Thurman J. Moody]

I have very (un) fond memories of operating this machine back in the 1930s and 1940s. It seemed like it took me half an hour to get the speed up so that the bell wouldn't ring and we could start running the milk through the machine for separation. Also at my age there seemed to be THOUSANDS of disks in the separator portion of the machine and you daren't wash them without having them on the wire "holder" because they had to be replaced in a certain manner or the machine would refuse to work!

[Annie :)]

You've inspired me to buy a centrifugal-based cream separator in honor of National Dairy Month. Do you know where I might find one? They're fresh out of them on ebay.