|
Pictured above are two metal butter churns. The butter churn on the left is a Challenge Churn made by the Mason Manufacturing Co. of Canton, Ohio. It has a patent date of June 23, 1908 and was cranked with both hands, similar to pedaling a bicycle. This one is a No. 22 or 2 gallon size. These butter churns were made in 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 10 gallon sizes. The prices were $4.50, $5.00, $5.50, $6.00, $7.00 and $10.00. The patent was granted to John Brooks Davis and Burt Copeland of Abingdon, Illinois. The patent was originally assigned to the Abingdon Churn Company. This butter churn had a six point star shaped dasher and it was not suspended but rather turned on a cone soldered to the bottom of the square cream can. The dasher is in the picture between the two butter churns. The company advertised that these churns could make butter in five to ten minutes. By 1913 the company was claiming sales of 200,000 churns. The Challenge churns came with a glass dairy thermometer and a book, "The Science of Butter Making" when purchased new.
The name Challenge came from a standing challenge that the Mason Manufacturing Company made to its customers. The company offered 500 dollars in gold to any person who showed them a butter churn equal or better to the Challenge churn in ease of operation, strength and durability of materials, simplicity in construction, cleanliness, workmanship and a churn that made more or better butter or got a higher percentage of butter fats. In addition they had to show one instance or produce one person who was refused a refund upon return of a Challenge churn when it was not satisfactory. I don't think the company was too worried about giving up the 500 dollars with this long list of requirements. They also offered a free 30 day trial of their churn. These were common tactics used by mail order salesmen. Sears, Roebuck and Company used a similar reward and free trial period on their cream separators.
We have seen some Challenge churns that were made by the Abingdon Churn Company of Abingdon, Illinois. These were stenciled with an October 9, 1894 patent date. This patent was granted to Ira Taylor Babbitt of Abingdon, Illinois for a combination ice cream freezer and butter churn. The patent shows a similar wooden frame but a different style of dasher. Babbitt would later patent the Perfection churn discussed below. It appears the history of many churns of this style are interrelated.
On the right is a butter churn that Sears, Roebuck and Company introduced in their 1915 catalog that was very similar to the Challenge Churn. They referred to it as the Holstein Butter Reaper. An interesting choice for a name since Holstein cows produced milk that yielded the least butter of all the breeds. The main difference was that the Challenge Churn had a wood frame and Sears advertised an angled steel frame for the Holstein Butter Reaper. The metal frame was fastened together with rivets and there was a folding foot peg on the back of the frame that one could stand on to steady the churn. This butter churn only had one crank handle on the big gear. It was offered only in a 3 1/2 gallon size that could churn 1 1/2 gallons and was priced at $3.30 that first year. The catalog claimed this churn could make butter in 3 to 5 minutes. It was last sold in the 1926 Sears catalog. Its price peaked at $6.45 in the 1920 catalog and it last sold for $4.90 in the 1926 catalog.
We have also seen two other butter churns of this style from Abingdon, Illinois. One was a 1916 advertisement for the Leader churn, which was made by the Novelty Manufacturing Company of Abingdon, Illinois. These churns were offered in 3, 5 and 8 gallon sizes and had a two handled crank and a metal frame that held the cream container. The prices for these three sizes were $4.00, $4.25 and $4.75. The company claimed that the Leader churn could churn butter in two minutes. That seems to good to be true!
The other was a churn embossed TAYLOR BABBITTS PERFECTION ABINGDON, ILL. It was embossed with a December 3, 1907 patent date (picture) and the phrase THE UP TO DATE. This patent was issued to Ira Taylor Babbitt of Abingdon and he claimed that his device could be used as an ice cream freezer or a butter churn. The dasher on this churn was designed similar to the churns pictured above however the spokes of the star were cut on a slant. This churn also had a two handled crank and a cast metal frame. The churn pictured here held 5 gallons.
The butter churn pictured above we have seen labeled either as a Banner Churn made by the Standard Churn Company of Wapakoneta, Ohio, an Elgin (before WWII) or Farm Master (after WWII) churn sold by Sears, Roebuck and Company or as a Wardway Butter Churn sold by Montgomery Ward. This one is 4 gallons in capacity. It utilized a wood, four blade dasher similar to those found in glass jar butter churns. This butter churn first sold in the 1924-25 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog under the Elgin brand for $4.15 and was available in 2, 3, 4 and 6 gallon sizes. Sears sold both this churn and the Holstein Butter Reaper for a few years but this metal churn quickly replaced the Holstein Butter Reaper. These same sizes appeared as early as 1922 in the Montgomery Ward catalog. The 1935-36 Montgomery Ward catalog listed the same sizes with a 4 gallon selling for $4.45 and in 1940-41 the same sizes appeared with the 4 gallon priced at $4.25. Sears was able to hold the price for the four gallon size under $4.40 throughout the 1930's. They were still sold in the 1942-43 Sears catalog just before the start of WWII. The 4 gallon size then cost $4.58 but the 3 gallon size had been dropped. This butter churn did not appear in the Sears catalog in the years following WWII probably due to a shortage of metal. It appeared again in the 1951 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog, then under the Farm Master label, but only the 4 gallon size was listed and it was priced at $7.35. By the 1951-52 Sears catalog only the electric version of this butter churn was offered. Many of the early catalogs claimed this model would churn butter in 8-10 minutes. We suspect the Standard Churn Company made all these butter churns and labeled them for Sears, Wards or themselves. 
Here is an economy metal churn. There is no frame for the tin can. The can just sits on the ground. It seems that in a short time the can would wear through. The dasher is just a flat piece of wood with holes in it. The brass tag soldered on the can says: MANUFACTURED BY J. S. BIESECKER 59 MURRAY ST. N. Y. J. S. Biesecker was a dairy and creamery supply company in New York. They sold milk bottles, butter churns, cream separators and just about anything else a dairy or creamery would need. They must have had a local metal worker make these butter churns for them. This one is very small, just a gallon and a half. The lid is cast metal with fancy scroll work embossed in it. 
 These are two tin butter churns. Both are 5 gallon capacity. The butter churn on the left is a vertical churn with wood paddles. The paddles are two half circles of wood connected at right angles (picture). It has GSW marked on the handles and was made by General Steel Wares of Canada. General Steel Wares was formed in 1927 by the merger of several smaller companies. We have seen General Steel Wares churns like this with a brass tag soldered to the metal that refers to them as the Triumph Churn (picture). The tag is stamped PAT. PEND. but we have never seen a patent. It is possible that this was a reference to a Canadian patent. A churn of this same style was sold in the 1922 Montgomery Ward catalog under the name of Perfection Sanitary Churn. They came in 3, 5, 7 and 10 gallon sizes. The cost of a 5 gallon model was $4.15.
This style of butter churn was originally patented on February 24, 1891 by John Lynott of Louisiana, Missouri. His churns can be found with a brass tag stamped J. P. Lynott's Patent Triumph Churn. The manufacturer was listed as Lynott's Stove & Churn Works of Louisiana, Missouri. The General Steel Wares butter churn pictured above would date to the 1930's; long after the protection of this patent had expired.
The butter churn on the right is a horizontal churn that also has wood paddles. It has no manufacturer's information but is basically a tin version of the New Style White Cedar Cylinder Churn.
Click here to go to the page that shows the New Style White Cedar Cylinder churn.
The two butter churns on the left are actually butter mergers. Butter mergers were supposed to take a pound of butter and a pound of milk (about a pint) and make 2 pounds of butter. Instead of paddles to churn the cream they had metal fingers that inter meshed to smash the butter and mix it with the milk. These have an outer container to hold warm water to soften the butter and warm the milk. The process of merging butter and milk was patented by William Wygal and Calvin Burgess of Bluefield, West Virginia on August 10, 1909. They assigned their patent to Benjamin Hawes of Washington D.C. Benjamin Hawes then went on to patent three butter mergers, which appear very similar. In essence Benjamin Hawes had a monopoly on the butter merger market since he owned the patent for the actual process and also the patents for the machines to do it.
The first butter merger on the left has the August 10, 1909 patent for the process of merging butter and milk as well as a May 4, 1909 patent date. The May 4, 1909 patent was for this design of butter merger and was granted to Hawes. By the dates it would appear that the machine came before the process but in reality the patent for the process was applied for in 1908 about ten months before the merger patent was applied for. The butter merger in the middle was called the Home Butter Merger and it has a September 14, 1909 patent date, which was also granted to Hawes. It was manufactured by the Family Butter Merger Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. The advertised cost for this butter merger when new was 5 dollars. It was advertised to be able to merge butter and milk in two minutes and was touted as the "Greatest money saver on Earth for the home". Many of the parts on these two butter mergers are very similar or identical. The main difference is the addition of a second handle on the butter merger in the middle.
Benjamin Hawes was also issued a patent on September 7, 1909 for another butter merger. This patent he assigned to himself and Titian Johnson but we have never come across this butter merger.
Most states had food and dairy laws that established legal standards for the fat and moisture content of butter. One problem with merged butter was that it did not meet these standards since it was lower in fat and higher in moisture. For home use this was not an issue but if merged butter was used in a restaurant or hotel without being disclosed it could result in large penalties. In many states the business owner had to post a sign stating that he served merged butter.
The butter churn on the right is unmarked but the paddle is identical to the Home Butter Maker's shown else where on this site (picture). No matter who made it, it must have been an economy version with a tin can instead of a glass jar. This butter churn was listed in the 1929-30, 1933-34 and 1935-36 Montgomery Ward catalogs. It was available only in a one gallon size and cost $1.35 in 1933-34 and $1.55 two years later. A four quart glass jar churn in these same catalogs would have cost $2.19 and $2.25 respectively. The 1933-34 Ward's catalog referred to this butter churn as a Butterfly Churn. It still appeared in the 1940-41 Montgomery Ward catalog with that name but the price was reduced to $1.45 and the capacity was now listed as 5 quarts. It was advertised to make butter in 10 or 12 minutes in the various catalogs. 
Pictured above is a Victor Sanitary Churn. The frame was cast iron and the inside parts were aluminum. This butter churn was unique in that the cream container was rotated by gears driven from below. The dasher was supported from above but it was stationary and did not turn. There was a piece with 4 wings that sat in the bottom of the cream container that rotated with it. This got the cream moving and as it hit the stationary dashers the cream was churned. It was advertised to be able to churn from 2 quarts to 4 gallons without adjustment.
This butter churn was patented on June 6, 1911 by Victor Klick of Columbus, Ohio. It was sold by the Columbian Mail Crane Company of Columbus, Ohio. The price in 1912 was 4.95 and by 1915 it had risen to 5.95. This company seemed to sell factory direct. As was the case with most metal churns sanitation and ease of cleaning were big selling features. Since there were no moving gears above the cream container that needed lubrication there was no chance of oil dripping into the butter.
This was not Victor Klick's first butter churn patent. He was issued a patent in July of 1909 for a churn mechanism that would attach to a stoneware crock. We have never seen that churn.
The Columbian Mail Crane Company seems like an unusual name but their main product was a mail crane to load mail on to moving trains. Hence their experience with metal. In 1919 they advertised that over half of the cranes in use in America were their Columbian Cranes. That same ad mentioned that their cranes had been in service 24 years, dating the company to 1895. 
 This is an attachment made by Maytag to convert one of their early square tub washers into a butter churn. John Mikulasek of Newton, Iowa was granted a patent on March 15, 1932 for this invention. He assigned his patent to the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa. He applied for the patent in late 1929 and we have seen Maytag advertisements for this butter churn attachment as early as 1930. The earliest Maytag butter churns had one stop attached to the bucket and the later ones, like the one pictured here, had two stops. These fingers extended into the corner of the square washing machine tub to keep the butter churn bucket from spinning (picture). The churn bucket sat in the washer tub and the aluminum paddle attached to the transmission shaft in place of the agitator (or the Gyratator as Maytag called it). Warm or cold water could be added to the washer tub outside the churn bucket to increase or decrease the temperature of the cream. The capacity of this butter churn attachment was five gallons and it could churn about 3 gallons of cream.
There was also an attachment to convert the washer wringer into a meat grinder. Many of these early Maytag washers were powered by a gasoline engine prior to electricity reaching rural farms. The engine's muffler was attached to a flexible metal hose and could be routed out a window or vent to keep the exhaust gases out of the house.
The Maytag Company was not the first to patent the idea of converting their washing machine into a butter churn. There were at least three patents prior to Maytag's that dealt with converting a Maytag washer into a butter churn. There were patents issued in 1929, 1930 and 1931 for this conversion, with the earliest applied for in 1927. The idea to combine a clothes washing machine and a butter churn occurred much earlier. A patent was granted in 1866 for a washing machine that could be changed into a butter churn.
Click here for a picture of a Maytag washer that this butter churn was designed for. 
This is a 3 gallon tin dash churn. The process of churning was exactly the same as in stoneware churns and the more common wood dash butter churns. The dasher was just repeatedly moved up and down until butter granules formed. The tin dash churn had the advantage of being less prone to damage than stoneware butter churns and had less leakage problems then occurred when the staves on wood dash churns shrunk or warped. One additional feature that reduced spillage even more was the lid did not have a simple hole for the dasher handle like stoneware and wood churns. There was actually a 2 to 3 inch piece of tin soldered in the form of a tube and attached to the underside of the lid around the hole. The dasher passed through this tube and this greatly reduced the amount of cream that splashed out on top of the churn lid. These churns were very light and were prone to rusting. A lot of these churns are found with holes rusted in the bottoms from moisture collecting inside. An 1899 hardware catalog from Nevada City, California listed the wholesale price of a 3 gallon churn like this one as $1.25. They were still advertised in a 1924 Sacramento, California hardware catalog with a wholesale price of $2.50. We have also seen these butter churns advertised in 1, 2, 4 and 5 gallon sizes.
Click here to go to the page with wood dash butter churns.
Click here to go to the page with stoneware dash butter churns. 
 This is a Sturges Steel Churn made by the Sturges and Burn Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois. This company was also a large manufacturer of tin milk cans. These churns work on the same principle as wood barrel churns. There are no paddles or dashers in the barrel. The cream falling end to end as the barrel is rotated results in the churning of the cream. Sturges churns appear in early Sears and Wards catalogs. The 1895 Wards catalog and the 1896 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogs both list a 5 and 9 gallon Sturges Steel Churn. The five gallon was sold for 5 dollars and the nine gallon sold for 8 dollars. These early Sturges churns used a very cylindrical barrel, looking almost like a grease barrel. One of there advertising features was the that the top was the full width of the barrel to make cleaning easier. This early design was patented by Lee Sturges of Chicago, Illinois on November 27, 1894 and the patent was assigned to the Chicago Stamping Company. Around 1900 the Chicago Stamping Company would become Sturges and Burn Manufacturing Company with Lee Sturges serving as vice-president and treasurer. They advertised that compared to wood churns, their metal churns were less apt to leak, there were no barrel hoops to come loose and they were easy to keep sanitary.
The style pictured above came out in 1915 and the barrel had more rounded edges. These were offered in a 5 gallon size, like the one pictured here, or a 7 and 10 gallon size. The 7 and 10 gallon sizes had a taller stand. The prices were $5.50 for the 5 gallon, $6.50 for the 7 gallon and $7.25 for the 10 gallon. The larger sizes could be adapted for a drive pulley rather than the crank. In 1920 a fourth size was mentioned but no details were given as to what that new size was.
These churns were very colorful with a blue barrel and a bright red stand. The introduction of this churn coincided with WWI in Europe and patriotic sentiment was high. The advertisements at this time again stressed sanitation and even mentioned microbes and germs. During this period of time there was a great concern about sanitation in the preparation of food.
H. H. Palmer & Company, a large manufacturer of wooden barrel churns located in Rockford, Illinois, also was working on metal barrel churns. Three patents were granted to Samuel Palmer on July 2, 1895 for improvements in metallic barrel churns. We have never seen a metal barrel churn with the H. H. Palmer name however.
Click here to go to the page with wood barrel butter churns.
Click here to go to the page with stoneware barrel butter churns.
Click here to go to the page with Surges & Burns Manufacturing Company milk cans.
Displayed above are two metal cylinder churns, often referred to as syllabub churns. Syllabub was a dessert or drink popular in the 19th century. It was made by combining milk or cream with wine or cider plus egg whites and various flavorings. When the dish was thick it could be served as a dessert or when it was thin as a drink. These cylindrical mixers were used to make syllabub and became known as syllabub churns. They can be open on the bottom and set in a bowl to whip cream or beat eggs or have a closed bottom where the items to be mixed where put in the churn itself. However the word churn in this case meant more mixing or agitation rather than churning cream into butter.
The first churn on the left is stamped the BADGER EGG CHURN. The cylinder is 5 1/2 inches tall by 2 1/2 inches in diameter and has an open bottom with perforations around the bottom edge. It was made to be set in a bowl filled with the items to be mixed. Inside the cylinder is a perforated disc that fills the cross section of the cylinder and is moved up and down by a rod. This is an example of a syllabub churn that was probably not used to churn butter but rather as a cream whip or egg beater.
There were some churns of this style that did refer to butter in their name or had patents that referred to butter making. One example is the butter churn on the right. The brass tag is stamped:
OVEE VACUUM
BUTTER MAKER
MANUFACTURED BY
OVEE MANUFACTURING CO.
INCORPORATED
LOUISVILLE, KY.
This churn had a closed bottom and a perforated disc was moved up and down by the rod. The cylinder was 10 inches tall and 3 1/2 inches in diameter. The churn would have had a volume of a little over three pints and would probably have been able to churn about half of that volume. How well they churned butter we are unsure of, however this style of butter churn is not that common so that me tell us something. We have also been told that this same butter maker can be found labeled the Home Vacuum Butter Maker with the Home Manufacturing Company of New Albany, Indiana listed as the manufacturer.
One other syllabub churn that refers to butter was The Wonder Vacuum Butter Maker. It was invented by Mrs. L. B. Leagan of Kansas City, Missouri. This churn was shorter but had a larger diameter cylinder.
To go to the page with Landers, Frary and Clark metal butter churns click here. |
|
