154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and you can see there how perfectly the cream is separated. 

 I suppose he has explained to you the process. 



I have had this machine since about the middle of last 

 May. The inventor, Mr. Weston, asked me if I would like 

 to experiment with it ; and I told him Yes, and he sent it to 

 me. It has a steel basket about thirty-two inches in diame- 

 ter. This steel basket is made of forged wrought steel. 

 The labor on this basket occupied about seventy-three days ; 

 and, at four dollars a day, you see the basket alone cost about 

 three hundred dollars. The pressure on the outside of this 

 basket, the machine running two thousand revolutions a 

 minute, is two hundred pounds to the square inch. Boilers 

 that will stand a pressure of a hundred and fifty pounds to 

 the square inch pass the government inspection. So you see 

 that this centrifugal force exerts an immense pressure upon 

 the metal ; and in order to put with safety twenty-five gallons 

 of milk into the machine at a time, as I do, it has to be made 

 very strong indeed. 



This machine revolves on a spindle. It goes very much 

 like a top. The machine is about three feet and a half from 

 the floor ; and the spindle is connected with the machine at 

 the bottom, — sets in a box, and is driven from the bottom. 

 The box in which it revolves of course is very finely made, 

 surrounded with rubber, so that the machine wabbles like a 

 top if it gets off of its centre, and sometimes it will run off 

 the centre a little, enough to give it a wabble for two or 

 three weeks ; then the " old lady," as we call her at the 

 farm, will straighten right up, and run as true as a die. 

 This basket, filled with milk, revolving on this steel spindle 

 at the rate of from fifteen hundred to two thousand revolu- 

 tions a minute, forms a perfect wall of cream upon the sides. 

 You have all probably seen a pail of water swung around a 

 man's head, and you know that centrifugal force holds that 

 water up. It is forced gravitation. 



All gravitation tends toward the centre of the earth ; but 

 whirling a pail of water round your head produces forced 

 gravitation, which holds the water perpendicular. This 

 macliine produces that forced gravitation, and we have a 

 perpendicular wall of milk. The top of this basket is about 

 thirteen inches in diameter, and the opening has a cover 

 with a brass flange, which raises it above the top of the ma- 



