PLANS OF BARNS AND MILK ROOMS 329 



The method of working is as follows : A tray holding twenty- 

 four inverted bottles is placed on the top of the machine over the tank 

 (a). The warm water in the central pipes is pumped up through the 

 holes in the pipes into each bottle, thus rinsing it out. Another tray 

 being pushed into the machine shoves the first tray over tank (b). 

 Here the interior of the bottles is sprayed with lye and water. The 

 introduction of another tray moves the first tray over the tank (c). 

 The tank (c) is really one with (b), the bottles here merely draining 

 back into the tank again, no water being pumped into them. Another 

 tray being placed in the machine pushes the first tray to (d). Here 

 the bottles are rinsed with plain warm water to remove the lye, and 

 at (e), boiling water is injected instead of water to sterilize (for one 

 minute) the bottles. About 1 , 500 bottles may be washed in one hour by 

 this labor-saving device. The bottles must, however, be washed by hand 

 if they contain old milk and have not been previously rinsed by the 

 milk consumer. Also, one minute sterilization* is not sufficient and 

 they must go for one hour's sterilization in the large sterilizer, when 

 certified milk is desired. The water is heated by steam from the 

 boiler (6) which runs the engine. A metal hood covers the whole top 

 of the washing machine to prevent the escape of the water which is 

 thrown from the pipes on each side over the exterior of the bottles. 

 The machine with pumps costs about $200, and is sixteen feet long 

 and twenty-six inches wide (see Fig. 86). 



The platform (13) and floor of the milk- receiving room are some 

 fifty inches from the ground. In the milk-receiving room at (9) is a 

 raised platform three feet from the floor on which are scales holding a 

 large milk-receiving tank in which is a Star trap strainer. After the 

 milk is weighed it is run from a faucet into a funnel, conducting the 

 milk through the wall, into a tank (10) holding some one hundred 

 gallons, and from thence is drawn off into the Star bottle filling tank 

 (11). The milk is cooled, as described, at the barn (p. 328), and the 

 water supplying the Star cooler is cooled in summer by running it 

 through a coil of pipe in a cask of ice water (see p. 116). 



* It is perfectly possible to sterilize milk bottles absolutely, if boiling water is 

 pumped into the bottles for a longer time, as shown Dy bacteriological examina- 

 tions of bottles washed by similar machines. The exhaust steam from the engine 

 xnav be used to heat water to boiling point. 



