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Introduction to Milk Bottles
One thing unique to dairy bottles is that they were reused many times. This was probably due to the fact that milk had a short shelf life. The consumer only needed the bottle for a couple weeks and milk was only sold locally. A United States Department of Agriculture Survey in the early 1900's found that the average life span of a milk bottle was 22.5 trips with a range from 6 to 60 trips.
Many dairies used plain bottles and identified their product with milk caps stating their name. However these bottles were impossible to identify and easily stolen by competitors. One solution was to etch the dairy name into the glass as seen in the bottle on the left above. The most common type of etching was freehand writing but some dairies used stencils for etching the letters (picture).
Much nicer was to have a milk bottle made with the dairy name embossed on the glass. One way to do this was to use a generic mold with a round insert or slug plate that had the dairy's information on it. All of the dairy's information had to fit in this round slug plate on the front of the bottle. The slug plate on a quart bottle was usually just over three inches in diameter. In 1939 Thatcher Manufacturing offered free slug plate lettering for every five gross (720 bottle) order of milk bottles. In their 1941-42 catalog Sears, Roebuck and Company made a similar offer. They would give free slug plate embossing of the dairy's name on orders of sixty dozen (720) milk bottles of the same size. The milk bottle in the center is an example of a slug plate milk bottle. Note the rings on the neck of this milk bottle to aid in gripping it.
Larger dairies could afford to have complete molds, sometimes called private molds, made for their milk bottles. In this case the dairy information was not limited to the slug plate. Other areas of the bottle could be utilized and the embossing on the front could be much larger. In 1939 Thatcher Manufacturing would furnish a free private mold for every one rail car order. The bottle on the right is an example of a milk bottle made with a full or private mold.
Milk bottles left to right:
Soledad Dairy Products, quart, Soledad, California, Owens-Illinois, 1933
Turlock Milk Co., quart, Turlock, California, Illinois Pacific Glass Co., 1921
American Creamery Co., quart, Oakland, Hayward, Richmond, California, Illinois Pacific Glass Corp., 1929
Off page milk bottles left to right:
Granger's Dairy, quart, Sacramento, California, Owens-Illinois, 1935
Union Dairy, quart, Sacramento, California, Owens-Illinois, 1935 
Milk bottles came in many sizes. Shown above are five of these sizes. From left to right is a quart, pint, 12 ounce, half pint and quarter pint also known as a gill. The 12 ounce is not as common and is often marked FOR CAFE USE ONLY. These were used in restaurants and cafeterias rather than for home or store delivery. All these bottles are from Monterey Bay Milk Distributors Inc. Note the bumps on the necks of four of the bottles to aid in gripping them. The smaller bottles were often used for cream or school milk bottles. The 5c embossed on these bottles is not the price but rather the deposit on the milk bottles.
In addition to 12 ounce bottles one will also find 10 ounce and third quart (10.67 ounces) cafe milk bottles. Some bottles will be embossed 3/4 PINT which was the same as 12 ounces. In California, 10 ounce milk bottles were not common. The 12 ounce cafe bottles were most common during the period round bottles were in use and in square bottles the third quart cafe bottles became more common. States often regulated what size bottles could be used to sell milk in the state. Click here for a picture comparing a pint, 12 ounce, 3/4 pint, 1/3 quart and 10 ounce milk bottle.
Milk bottles left to right:
Monterey Bay Milk Distributors, quart, Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1933
Monterey Bay Milk Distributors, pint, Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1942
Monterey Bay Milk Distributors, 12 oz., Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1945
Monterey Bay Milk Distributors, half pint, Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1938
Monterey Bay Milk Distributors, quarter pint, Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1942
Off page milk bottles left to right:
Burr, pint, Los Angeles, California, West Coast Glass Company, pre-1930
PEP Creameries LTD., 12 ounce, Watsonville, California, Owens-Illinois, 1939
Mare Island Cafeteria, 3/4 pint, Vallejo, California, Pacific Coast Glass Company, 1925
Henry Creamery Corp., 1/3 quart, Los Angeles, California, maker and date unknown
Jersey Farm Dairy, 10 ounce, Fresno, California, Thatcher Manufacturing Company, 1919 
In the 1940's and 1950's larger milk bottles became more common. On the left is a half gallon milk bottle and on the right are a pair of gallon milk bottles with metal handles. The gallon milk bottle in the middle is a wide mouth gallon. It was not popular as it was awkward to use and pour. The cap size on this bottle was just under four inches. The bottle had two glass ears that the metal handle attached to. The gallon bottle on the far right has a smaller mouth. The cap size on this bottle was around 2 1/4 inches. The metal handle on this bottle is attached by a wire ring around the bottle neck. This bottle is embossed with a patent number for a design patent issued to Henry McKnight of Toledo, Ohio on June 25, 1940. The patent was assigned to Owens-Illinois Glass Company of the same city.
The Thatcher Manufacturing Company also listed a three pint milk bottle in some of their early catalogs but it was not popular and never used in California.
Milk bottles left to right:
Bret Harte, half gallon, Nevada City & Grass Valley, California, Owens-Illinois, 1946
Sanitary Farms Dairy, Inc., gallon, Erie, Pennsylvania, Owens-Illinois, 1953
Sunshine Dairy, gallon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Owens-Illinois, 1948 
Beginning in 1933 a form of silk screening was introduced to put colored labels on milk bottles. The colored label was actually fused to the glass. This was cheaper and faster than using the molds needed for embossed milk bottles. It also made the labels much more prominent against the white background of the milk. This process was called pyroglazing (pyro for short) or Applied Color Labeling. Pyroglaze was the term used by the Thatcher Manufacturing Company of Elmira, New York. Owens-Illinois Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio used the term Applied Color Labeling or ACL for the same process.
An industry press release in May of 1933 indicated that Owens-Illinois Glass Company had developed this process at its plant in Huntington, West Virginia. Soon after, by July of 1933, they started promoting milk bottles with fused names and trademarks in color (they did not use the term ACL at that time) in their own advertisements. In August of 1932 they used the term "Applied Color" Bottles in their advertisements to refer to display milk bottles that had color fused to the inside of the glass bottle. Display milk bottles were internally colored white to simulate milk and a yellow color to indicate the cream. This was done inside the bottle and used by milk dealers in their promotional displays. We are not sure if this was the same technology as applying colored labels to the outside of the bottle but Owens-Illinois claimed that the colors were fused to the glass by intense heat. They said the color was an integral part of the glass and permanent and indestructible except through breakage. The first advertisement we have seen from the Thatcher Manufacturing Company for pyroglazing was in March of 1934. They used the term pyroglaze in that advertisement.
With the advent of color labeling, slogans and advertising were often applied to other areas of the milk bottle that had been ignored in embossed bottles. Pyroglazing could be applied to the front and back of the bottle body, the shoulder (except 1/4 pint) and the neck of the milk bottle. It could also be combined with embossing. The bottle capacities, state seals, patent information, mold marks and maker's marks were generally always embossed and never pyroglazed. Pyroglazed milk bottles became very common by the 1940's.
The word Duraglas (often in script) is found embossed on many milk bottle made by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Duraglas did not refer to the process of Applied Color Labeling. Rather it was the term used to describe light weight milk bottles manufactured by the company. As glass makers became more precise in the distribution of glass in the mold and reducing the number of flaws the total amount of glass could be reduced to save bottle and handling costs yet have a milk bottle of comparable strength. A Duraglas quart weighed 3-4 ounces less than an older milk bottle. Owens-Illinois Glass Company introduced the Duraglas concept in 1940. Other glass manufacturers soon followed with their own light weight milk bottles.
Pictured above are embossed milk bottles from four California dairies and pictured below them are pyroglazed milk bottles from the same dairies.
Milk bottles top picture left to right:
Millers Dairy, quart, Santa Cruz, California, Owens-Illinois, 1938
Peoples Dairy Co., quart, San Francisco, California, Illinois Pacific Glass, pre 1930
Clare Dell Dairy, quart, Gilroy, California, Hazel-Atlas
Golden Rule Dairy, quart, Modesto, California, Owens-Illinois, 1934
Milk bottles bottom picture left to right:
Miller Dairy, quart, Santa Cruz, California, Owens-Illinois, 1946
Peoples, quart, San Francisco, California, Owens-Illinois, 1944
Clare Dell Dairy, quart, Gilroy, California, Owens-Illinois. 1946
Golden Rule Dairy, quart, Modesto, California, Owens-Illinois, 1946 
Pyroglazing offered dairies the choice of many colors to use on their milk bottles. Pictured above are examples of the eight most common colors; red, orange, maroon, blue, brown, black, green, and yellow. Red and orange would be the colors most commonly found and yellow would be the least common. Most of these colors were available in various shades. Borden's milk bottles were known for their light brown shade. Also two and three color milk bottles can be found (picture).
Milk bottles top row left to right:
Thomas Dairy, half pint, Auburn, California, Owens-Illinois, 1955
Dairy Products Laboratory, half pint, San Francisco, California, Owens-Illinois, 1966
Glenwood Creamery, half pint, Oakland, California, Owens-Illinois, 1948
Milk bottles bottom row left to right:
Mountain Home Creamery, pint, Lakeport, California, Owens-Illinois, 1947
Excelsior Liberty Dairy Co., half pint, San Francisco, California, Owens-Illinois, 1941
Borden's Capital Dairy, half pint, Sacramento, California, Owens-Illinois, 1945
Eureka Dairy, half pint, Monterey, California, Owens-Illinois, 1943
Bell-Brook Dairies Inc., pint, San Francisco, California, Owens-Illinois, 1946
Off page milk bottles left to right:
Sunshine Farm Dairy, half pint, Merced, California, Hazel Atlas, date unknown
Spreckles Dairy Products, pint, Burlingame, California, Owens-Illinois, 1941
Mountain Home Creamery, quart, Lakeport, California, Owens-Illinois, 1948
Dairy Industry Division (University of California, Davis), quart, Davis, California, Owens-Illinois, 1942
Square milk bottles became popular after World War II, in the late 1940's. These are the milk bottles that many people remember from when they were kids. There were earlier square milk bottles, such as the Blake-Hart, but they were not common. Square milk bottles had an advantage of being able to ship more milk in less space. Also bottle making technology had advanced so that a strong square milk bottle was possible. Round bottles are inherently stronger since they do no have corners.
Bottles also became shorter during this period as shown by the first three bottles pictured above. These are all quart bottles. The first bottle on the left is the height of a normal round quart. The second and third bottles still held a quart but are noticeably shorter. This again allowed more milk to be stacked in the same space. Also since homogenization was becoming the norm, the need for a long, slender neck to show off the cream line was no longer necessary.
The common disc cap which was around 1 5/8 inches in diameter also become less common. The middle bottle used a smaller disc that was 1 3/8 inches in diameter. Bottle washing machines had improved so the larger mouth was no longer necessary and with homogenized milk there was no need to try and remove cream from the bottle. The Dacro closure was also used on many square milk bottles like the last bottle on the right. As knowledge of food safety increased it became much more common for milk bottle caps to cover and protect the pouring lip. The gill or quarter pint milk bottle disappeared from the scene.
Milk bottles left to right:
Bayview Dairy, quart, Hayward, California, Owens-Illinois, 1949
Lone Star Dairy, quart, Auburn, California, Owens-Illinois, 1957
Toyon creamery, quart, Palo Alto, California, Owens-Illinois, 1955
Santa Clara Creamery, pint, Santa Clara, California, Owens-Illinois, 1954
Carnation Milk Company, half pint, Liberty Glass Company, 1962
Click here to go to the page with Blake-Hart square milk bottles.
Larger size milk bottles, like half gallons and full gallons, became much more common during the era of square milk bottles. Maybe this was the super size effect or more likely consumers were willing to purchase more milk at one time. This was possible since improvements in milk quality and milk processing had increased the shelf life of milk. Consumers could purchase larger sizes and not worry about it spoiling before they finished it.
Pictured above are three half gallon milk bottles. They came in square and rectangular shapes. The first bottle on the left was almost an 8 sided bottle. The corners were very flattened off or rounded and the center panels were scalloped inward slightly. This bottle shape was patented by Mason Parsell of Baltimore, Maryland on April 26, 1955. This was a design patent for an ornamental shape and the patent was assigned to the Buck Glass Company also of Baltimore, Maryland. Other glass manufacturers also utilized this patent so it was not exclusive to Buck Glass Company.
These larger milk bottles were awkward to carry and pour so bottle manufacturers came up with ways to make them more manageable. The rectangular bottle in the middle is an example of the Thatcher Grip Bottle. It had indentations in the glass on the front and back of the bottle that one's fingers and thumb could lock into. This idea was granted a design patent on April 3, 1962. The inventor was Edwin Laudano of Matawan, New Jersey. He assigned his patent to the Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company of New York. The patent papers specifically showed a rectangular bottle. The milk bottle on the far right is a square half gallon that also has indentions for the fingers and thumb. The fact that it was square was probably enough to keep if from infringing on the patent for the Thatcher Grip Bottle.
The milk bottle in the middle also has a plastic carrying handle around the neck to make it easier to pick up. This handle was patented by three men (Jennings, Swartwood & Sampson) from Ohio on January 27, 1959. This also was a design patent. Glass manufacturers also used wire handles on larger milk bottles to make them easier to carry. Click here for a picture of two square gallon milk bottles that used wire carrying handles.
Milk bottles left to right:
La Bonita Dairy, half gallon, Lancaster, California, Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company, 1961
DeVries Dairy, half Gallon, location unknown, Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company, 1963
Norm's Dairy, half gallon, Hanford, California, Owens-Illinois, 1967
Off page milk bottles left to right:
Jersey Crown Dairy, gallon, Hayward, California, Owens-Illinois, 1958
Royal Jersey Dairy Farms, gallon, Sacramento, California, Owens-Illinois, 1961 |
