78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERS. 



to this churn worthy of note. In the common churn the dasher has 

 to be raised out of the cream at each stroke, and plunged doAvn with 

 some force, and, as this scatters the cream, it is necessary to cover the 

 churn tightly and allow the dasher to play through a small hole in the 

 centre of the cover ; but in this atmospheric churn the dasher is kept 

 always under the surface of the liquid, and consequently there is no 

 splashing of the cream, and the cover may be left off with safety, and 

 enable you to watch the operation. A strong recommendation is its 

 simplicity, and, as one of the inventors stated, he could alter any com- 

 mon churn dasher to this principle for twenty-five cents. 



" Prior to this simple device for introducing air, several complicated 

 inventions had been patented, and many more made and presented to 

 the office to effect the same purpose. In truth, this invention at first 

 was not considered patentable, but after the exhibition of its actual 

 operation by one of the inventors, a different view was adopted and a 

 patent ordered to issue. As atmospheric churns were not new, the 

 ground was taken that the use of any known means of introducing air 

 was not patentable. Tfce ground of action is correct in itself, but did 

 not appear applicable in the case after a personal explanation from the 

 inventor, and an exhibition of the operation and result of his invention. 

 The patentability of an invention frequently turns upon a nice point, 

 and inventions the most novel are sometimes the most worthless, while 

 again others least novel in appearance, bearing the similitude of com- 

 mon and unpatentable devices, are most valuable and important in 

 practice. Simplicity is the essence of true invention, and it is often 

 interesting to see, after a multitude of complicated inventions to attain 

 a certain end, some discerning or perhaps fortunate inventor demolish 

 a whole labyrinth of combinations, and arrive at the result by means 

 so simple as almost to rob invention of its charms ; such means as one 

 would suppose should have been the first and not the last resort. 



" A modification of the last-named churn has been patented, in 

 which the hole in the dasher at the lower part was large enough to 

 contain a solid plunger, fitting loosely within the dasher, which acts 

 the part of a second valve. There have been also several patents 

 granted for ingenious forms of rotary atmospheric churns. These in- 

 ventors crowded upon the office so numerously, that they were exam- 

 ined with the most rigid scrutiny, and, on several occasions, actual 

 demonstration, by experiment of making butter, was required of the 

 applicants, to satisfy the office that the inventions claimed justified 

 their pretensions to be real improvements. In most of these cases, the 

 results were unfavorable to the inventor ; but, in some, patents were 

 ordered to issue. On one occasion an experiment was performed 

 (humorously characterized by a bystander as a ' churn race,') be- 

 tween a patented and a new churn, in which they both came out alike, 

 making butter from new milk in two minutes and a half. Such a rapid 

 separation of the butter, however, is by no means desirable, although 

 this is the general aim of these improvements. We have it upon the 

 highest chemical authority, that butter made so rapidly is not likely 

 to be so good as that which is made slowly.'! 



