1909. 
240 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Other Cream Separators 
Merely Discarded or Abandoned 
De Laval Inventions 
Now that the use of the cream separator has become so nearly 
universal and there are many thousands buying machines every year, 
both those who are beginning their use and those who are replacing 
old machines for one reason or another, it is interesting and in¬ 
structive to know that nearly, if not quite, every cream separator that 
has ever been made, and certainly all that are being made at this 
time, are merely copies or imitations of some type of construction 
originally invented or developed by the De Laval Company, and 
either not used by it because of something more practical or else 
discarded and abandoned in the course of De Laval progress and 
utilization of later improvements. 
The first practical continuous flow centrifugal Cream Separator 
was the invention of Dr. Gustaf de Laval in 1878, the American 
patent application being filed July 31, 1879, and issuing as Letters 
Patent No. 247,804 October 4, 1881. 
This was the original Cream Separator of the “Hollow” or empty 
bowl type, with a power belt-driven frame, the bowl of which was 
later copied for a time in some form by all would-be competitors in 
both power and hand styles, of whom one or two still continue its 
manufacture. 
The original crank turned or hand power Cream Separator was 
the invention of Dr. de Laval, the American patent application being- 
filed October 2, 1886, and issuing as Letters Patent No. 356,990 
February 1, 1887. 
This machine was of what is known as the “Bevel Gear” type 
of hand separator frame and was copied by several earlier as well 
as now by one or two present would-be competitors. 
A N 
IMPROVED 
& MM 19 0 8- 1909 
] D E LAVAL 
CREAM 
SEPARATOR 
1L 
1 
Tm 
The original hand Cream Separator of the “Spur Gear" type— 
sometimes termed the “Baby” type of frame and gearing—was the 
invention of Dr. de Laval, the American patent application being- 
filed January 17, 1887, and issuing as Letters Patent No. 368,328 
August 16, 1887. 
The original Steam Turbine driven Cream Separator—of both the 
“Flyer” and “Steam Wheel” types—was the invention of Dr. de 
Laval, the American patent application being filed December 8, 1886, 
and issuing as Letters Patent No. 379 >^ 9 ° March 20, 1888. 
This invention was the foundation of all the steam turbine driven 
separators that have ever been made, either for creamery or dairy 
use. 
The original “Tubular” shape or “hollow” Cream Separator bowl 
was the invention of Dr. de Laval, the American patent application 
being filed April 19, 1886, and issuing as Letters Patent No. 372,788 
November 8, 1887. 
This “tubular” type of bowl was used by the De Laval Company 
in some of its hand power separators for several years and then 
abandoned as impractical. 
The original “Disc” Cream Separator was a De Laval owned 
and developed invention, the American patent application being filed 
May 12, 1890, and issuing as Letters Patent No. 432,719 July 22, 
1890. 
This same patent application and Letters Patent covered also the 
equivalent curved vertical “Blade” type of Cream Separator bowl, 
which, however, was inferior fo the “Disc” type and hence not used 
by the De Laval Company. 
There are now several makes of separators using these earlier 
abandoned types of De Laval “Disc ’ and vertical “Blade’ bowl 
construction. The “discs” and “blades” used vary in shape and 
number, and some are loose and some fastened together in sections 
to give suggestion of distinctiveness, but these differences are im¬ 
material and usually lessen the separation efficiency. 
The original “Bottom Feed” Cream Separator—of the “Tubular” 
bowl type—was the invention of Dr. de Laval, the American patent 
application being filed July 24, 1889, and issuing as Letters Patent 
No 445,066 January 20, 1891. 
This type of bowl, with its bottom feed, was not used by the 
De Laval Company because of its many impractical features, though 
it is now utilized by one or two would-be competitors, in the old 
style “hollow” bowl form. 
The original “Star” division plate or “Pineapple” cone type of 
Cream Separator, with a series of star or cone shaped cylinders set 
one within another in the bowl, was a De Laval owned invention, 
the American patent application being filed August 24, 1893, and 
issuing as Letters Patent No. 521,722 June 19, 1894. 
This type of bowl construction was not used by the De Laval 
Company because of its inferiority to the “Disc” type, but has been 
and is now utilized by several would-be competitors. 
The original “Split-Wing” Tubular Shaft Cream Separator is a 
De Laval owned and developed invention, the American patent ap¬ 
plication being filed April 29, 1898, and issuing as Letters Patent 
No. 640,358 January 2, 1900. 
This invention, with its still later improvements, is the type of 
bowl construction used in the De Laval machines of today, and both 
the original invention and a number of further improvements are 
still covered bv protecting patents which prevent their appropriation 
by would-be competitors. 
There are several machines now on the market which really in¬ 
fringe this construction, though they do not attempt its duplication 
with sufficient closeness to obtain anything like its full benefits, and 
if they may at any time accomplish success enough to justify such 
action infringement suits will be brought against their makers, sellers 
and users. 
The original “Curved” or “Converging Disc” type of Cream 
Separator bowl construction is a De Laval owned invention,. the 
American patent application being filed January 18, 1905, and issu¬ 
ing as Letters Patent No. 892,999 July 14, 1908. 
This recently issued patent is now being infringed by several 
would-be competitors against whom infringement proceedings have 
been or will shortly be instituted, partly as a cautionary warning to 
De Laval infringers generally. 
The patents thus enumerated are but a few of the more im¬ 
portant of the more than 500 original Cream Separator patents 
owned, controlled and developed by the De Laval Company during 
its thirty years of creation and development of the Cream Separator 
industry throughout the world. 
They are recited simply because they show in the most illustrative 
and conclusive manner possible De Laval originality and leadership 
from 1878 to the present day. 
As earlier patents have expired some of their features have one 
after another been taken up by different imitators, so that at all 
times, as is the case to-day, every separator made in the United States 
or elsewhere in the world, utilizes some type of construction orig¬ 
inally owned and developed by the De Laval Company, though some 
of them have never been commercially used by the De Laval Com¬ 
pany because of their inferiority to other types of construction used 
by it. 
All cream separator inventions by others have been of immaterial 
details or variations, upon which patents have been taken, if at all, 
more for the sake of the name than by reason of any real value or 
usefulness attaching to them. 
But the De Laval Company has always been forging ahead, with 
its many years of experience and the best of experts and mechanics 
the whole world affords in its employ, so that before any expiring 
patent might permit the use of any feature of construction by imita¬ 
tors the De Laval Company had already gone so much beyond that 
type of construction that it was then old and out-of-date in the 
modern De Laval machines. 
In addition to these many patent-protected features, the new 
1908-1909 improved line of De Laval machines has within two years 
been mechanically re-designed and re-constructed in every part, from 
ton to bottom, so that the De Laval machines of to-day, even more 
so than at any past period, are fully ten years in advance of any 
other cream separator made. 
These are the Rock-of-Gibraltar-like facts against which the 
'word claims” of would-be competitors fade away like the 
mere 
mists of night before the rays of the morning sun. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
42 E. Madison Street 
CHICAGO 
1213 & 1215 Filbert St. 
PHILADELPHIA 
Drumm& Sacramento Sts. 
SAN FRANCISCO 
General Offices: 
165-167 BROADWAY, 
NEW YORK. 
173477 William Street 
MONTREAL 
14 & 16 Princess Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 First Street 
PORTLAND, OREG. 
