Implements and Machines
Cream Separator
Also Known As Milk Separator
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A machine that spins whole milk at high speed to divide it into cream and skim milk by centrifugal force, replacing the slow gravity settling of pans. Gustaf de Laval's 1878 patent, built with Oskar Lamm, made the process continuous rather than batch-fed and became the commercially dominant design, though earlier batch-process centrifugal separators already existed.
Gustaf de Laval's continuous centrifugal separator, patented in 1878 with Oskar Lamm, is popularly credited as the invention, but the German engineer Wilhelm Lefeldt had already built a spinning centrifugal separator earlier in the 1870s; de Laval's advantage was a continuous, non-stop feed rather than being the first working machine.
Facts
Introduced Year OriginA German engineer named Lefeldt had already built a spinning centrifugal separator earlier in the 1870s; de Laval and Lamm's 1878 patent added continuous, non-stop feed, the feature that made the machine commercially dominant. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
The German engineer Wilhelm Lefeldt built and patented a centrifugal cream separator in the 1870s, before Gustaf de Laval's 1878 patent. De Laval's design is credited as the breakthrough chiefly because it fed milk continuously rather than in batches, not because it was first to spin cream from milk by centrifugal force.
A dissenting reading, from Wilhelm LefeldtEarly Separators Helped the Cream Rise to the Top (Farm Collector), Farm Collector
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