324 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



increased their use, but the idea of the commercial delivery of milk in 

 glass vessels seems to have originated with Alexander Campbell and he 

 was the first to put it into practice. By letter, he states that he began 

 the delivery of milk in glass bottles in the City of Brooklyn, now Brook- 

 lyn Borough, New York City, in 1878. The company was operated 

 under the name of the New York Dairy Co., Ltd. and at Monroe, 

 Orange County, N. Y., built the first creamery erected in the United 

 States for the bottling of milk. 



The first bottles used were designed by Mr. Campbell after the fashion 

 of beer bottles then in use but had the same size mouth of the milk bottles 

 of today and also " lightning" or tin tops with a paper beneath the tin to 

 prevent leakage. These first bottles were made by Henry S. Putnam of 

 New York City, who at Mr. Campbell's suggestion, for the purpose, 

 modified the machinery he was using in making beer bottles. These 

 bottles cost $21 a gross which is over four times what they would cost now. 



In December, 1879, Dr. J. C. Morris of Philadelphia read a paper 

 before the Franklin Institute of that city recounting his success in deliver- 

 ing milk for the preceding 6 months in Cohansey glass jars. He alludes 

 to a jar in use by a Mr. Lester and criticises those in use by Mr. Starr of 

 New York and M. D'Arcy of Paris. Mr. Lester was of Brooklyn and 

 attempted to introduce 1- and 2-qt. jars that had a metal fixture with a 

 rubber gasket and a thumb-screw on top to hold on the glass cover but 

 the device was never a success. Mr. F. R. Starr was also of Brooklyn 

 and established a Jersey herd at his Echo Farm Dairy in Litchfield, Conn. 

 He delivered milk in glass bottles in New York City in the latter part of 

 1879 or the beginning of 1880. Later his company was absorbed by 

 Mr. Campbell's. Dr. H. S. Thatcher patented a milk bottle in 1883 

 that was first used by Mr. Wilcox in Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, 

 N. Y., in that same year. Milk was first delivered in glass bottles in 

 Boston, Mass., by C. L. Alden, then of the Forest View Farm of Westwood, 

 Mass., but now of the Oak Grove Dairy of Boston, who in the fall of 1884 

 started bottle service in Hyde Park and in 1883 in West Roxbury, a part 

 of Boston. In 1886 the Whitman Dairy began delivering milk in glass 

 bottles in New York City. In 1889 under a single letters patent the 

 Thatcher Manufacturing Co. patented the " common-sense " milk bottle 

 and the " common-sense " cap. 



At first there was vigorous opposition to the use of glass containers. 

 On the one hand, it was an innovation to customers and on the other, 

 dealers predicted that breakage would be so great that the expense would 

 'be prohibitive. Mr. Stephen Francesco once told the writer that when 

 he began the use of glass bottles his customers said they did not want milk 

 from the drug store. Nevertheless the bottles slowly won their way. By 

 1896 approximately 10 per cent, of the milk of Philadelphia was delivered 

 in glass bottles. About 1895 the delivery of milk in glass bottles was 



