A hand separator of this type was exhibited at the Royal Show at
Newcastle by the Aylesbury Dairy Company, of 31 St. Petersburg Place,
Bayswater, England.
[Illustration: IMPROVED CREAM SEPARATOR. Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: IMPROVED CREAM SEPARATOR. Fig. 2.]
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the machine, Fig. 2 being a vertical
section. The drums of these machines, which make 2,700 revolutions per
minute for the large and 4,000 for the small one, have a diameter of
27 in. and 15½ in. respectively, and are capable of extracting the
cream from 220 and 115 gallons of milk per hour. These drums are
formed by hydraulic pressure from one piece of sheet steel. To avoid
the possibility of the machines being overdriven, which might happen
through the negligence of the attendant or through the governing gear
on the engine failing to act, an ingenious controlling apparatus is
fixed to the intermediate motion of the separator as shown in Fig. 3.
This apparatus consists of a pair of governor balls pivoted near the
center of the arms and attached to the main shaft of the intermediate
gear by means of a collar fixed on it. The main shaft is bored out
sufficiently deep to admit a steel rod, against which bear the three
ends of the governor arms. The steel rod presses against the
counterbalance, which is made exactly the right weight to withstand
the force tending to raise it, when the intermediate motion is running
at its designed speed. The forks between which the belt runs are also
provided with a balance weight. This brings them to the loose pulley,
unless they are fixed by means of the ratchet. Should the number of
revolutions of the intermediate increase beyond the correct amount,
the extra centrifugal force imparted to the governor balls enables
them to overcome the balance weight, and in raising this they raise
the arm. This arm striking against the ratchet detent releases the
balance weight, and the belt is at once brought on to the loose
pulley.
[Illustration: IMPROVED CREAM SEPARATOR. Fig. 3.]
The steel drum is fitted with an internal ring at the bottom (see Fig.
2), into which the milk flows, and from which it is delivered, by
three apertures, to the periphery of the drum, thus preventing the
milk from striking against the cone of the drum, and from mixing with
the cream which has already been separated. The upper part of the drum
is fitted with an annular flange, about 1½ in. from the top, reaching
to within one-sixteenth of an inch of the periphery. After the
separation of the skim milk from the cream, the former passes behind
and above this flange through the aperture, B, and is removed by means
of the tube, D, furnished with a steel tip projecting from the cover
of the machine into the space between the top of the drum and the
annular flange, a similar tube, F, reaching below this flange,
removing the cream which collects there. The skim milk tube is
provided with a screw regulator, the function of which is to enable
cream of any desired consistency to be obtained, varying with the
distance between the skim milk and cream points from the center of the
drum. Another point about these tubes is their use as elevating tubes
for the skim, milk and cream, as, owing to the velocity at which the
drum is rotating, the products can be delivered by these tubes at a
height of 8 or 10 feet above the machine if required, thus enabling
scalding and cooling of either to be carried on while the separator is
at work, and saving hand labor.--_Iron._
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