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Image # A58-135; While visiting the Atchison County Historical
Museum in Atchison, Kansas; I captured the image of this cream separator, a dairy machine which was used by farmers up thru the 50’s and into the mid 1960’s. This machine was used to separate fresh whole milk into cream and skim milk. Formerly the separation was made by the gravity method, allowing the cream to rise to the top of a pan and then skimming it off. (You’ve heard the phrase “SKIMMING OFF THE TOP” this is how it originated.) C. G. de Laval of Sweden devised the first mechanical cream separator in 1880, based on the principle of centrifugal force. Whole milk poured into the upper reservoir bowl, then passed through a central tubular shaft. A high speed spindle rotating at a rate of 6,000 to 9,000 rpm and a series of identical conical disks separates the milk into vertical layers. The heavier skimmed milk collects on the outer circumference while the lighter cream tends to remain in the center.
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