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Other Dairy Bottles
Pictured above are a pair of fruit jars. The jar on the left is a Cohansey jar and the one on the right is a Crystal jar.
We found a paper from 1879 where a Dr. J. Cheston Morris of Westchester, Pennsylvania describes using the Cohansey jar (on the left above) in quart size to sell milk from his farm. He discusses pasting a paper label on the jar to indicate the name and address of the producer, date of shipment and quality of the milk. The quart size, like the one pictured above, would have been used for milk and the half pint size would have held cream. In 1881 Dr. Morris patented a handle attachment for these jars. The consumer would remove the glass lid and ring that sealed the jar and then screw the patented handle on to the threads of the jar. The device would form a pouring spout on the jar and add a handle so it was easy to grab and pour from the jar.
These jars would have been used in the late 1870's and early 1880's prior to the introduction of milk bottles. The dairies using these jars would have been some of the first examples of milk and cream being sold in glass jars. We have seen these Cohansey fruit jars in half pint sizes embossed with the names of dairies. Dairies that used embossed Cohansey milk jars were Echo Farm (Litchfield, Connecticut), Hampden Creamery (Everett, Massachusetts) and Deerfoot Farm (Southboro, Massachusetts).
Cohansey Glass Manufacturing Company manufactured their glass jars at a plant in Bridgeton, New Jersey while the headquarters for the company were located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were in business from 1870 until about 1900. The lids on these jars are embossed with a July 16, 1872 and a January 18, 1876 patent dates. The 1872 patent was issued to Charles and William Imlay of Camden, New Jersey for their method of sealing jars with a glass lid held on by a metal ring. The 1876 patent was for improvements in the sealing method and showed the metal ring and threads on the glass jar as they are shown above. The 1876 patent was issued to Thomas Hipwell of Bridgeton, New Jersey and was assigned to the Cohansey Glass Manufacturing Company. The metal ring had four fingers. The two shorter fingers held the metal ring to the glass lid and the two longer fingers engaged the thread on the jar to tighten down the lid.
We also came across an article in an 1879 magazine that told of a dairy in New Jersey that was using the Crystal jar (on the right above) to deliver milk to homes. The article said the same dairy was also using the Warren milk bottle. Unfortunately the name of the dairy was not identified.
The Crystal jar also used a threaded glass lid however the lid had the threads molded into the glass and there was no metal anywhere on the jar. A rubber ring formed a seal between the glass lid and the mouth of the glass jar. The glass lid is embossed with a December 17, 1878 patent date. The article said that the jars used by the New Jersey dairy were fitted with a carrying handle much like the bail on a pail. We have never heard of a Crystal jar embossed with a dairy name.
It is possible that other brands of fruit jars were used to sell milk, but Cohansey and Crystal jars are the only ones we have found references to or seen with dairy names embossed on the jar. It was common for families living on the edge of town with one or two milk cows to sell the excess milk to their neighbors, especially during the times of the year when the cows were in peak production. Often fruit jars were used to sell milk like this. My dad remembers doing this in South Dakota when the family only had a few cows. One advantage of the fruit jars was that the wide mouth made it easy to skim off the cream. 
Another style of bottle that was used to sell milk in the late 1870's and 1880's was more typical of beer and soda bottles. Clear glass was utilized instead of amber and the bottles used the Lightning closure just like on beer and soda bottles of the period. This Lightning closure was patented by Charles DeQuillfeldt of New York, New York on January 5, 1875 and the patent was reissued with improvements on June 5, 1877. These bottles had narrow mouths unlike later milk bottles. Some of these bottles can be found embossed with dairy names. Two that we have come across were Chicago Sterilized Milk Company of Chicago, Illinois and American Pure Milk Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
The patent drawing shown above is of the Lester milk jar. It was patented on January 29, 1878 by George Lester of Brooklyn, New York and used by his business, the Lester Milk Company. Most people consider this the first glass jar specifically designed to hold milk. It had a lid that was held in place by a yoke that engaged the base of the jar and a screw that pushed down on the lid. This patent was actually the third in a series of patents granted to the Lester family.
The first patent was granted to George's father, John Lester, on November 16, 1875. His idea was to design a milk can where the milk was held under pressure with all the air in the can removed. This would keep the milk from churning during transport. That can had a bail connected at the neck of the jar which also had a screw to push down on the lid. The lid had two valves. One was used to put milk in the can and the other let the air escape as the can was filled. When milk escaped from the air valve it would be closed and then the fill valve would be closed. It would seem that filling any quantity of these cans would be very slow and messy, having to connect to the valves and having milk escape from the air valve.
On October 9, 1877 George Lester patented an improved milk can based on his father's idea. This was also a metal can with a yoke that engaged on the lip of the can and a screw to hold down the lid. The valves were eliminated. The can was filled full and as the lid was clamped down the air was excluded and the milk placed under pressure. There also was a provision to accommodate expansion and contraction of the milk if the temperature varied.
In his January 29, 1878 patent George Lester mentions the problems with the previous jar. Since the can was metal and often consumers did not clean the cans well there were corrosion problems with the tin. Making the can out of glass solved this problem. Also attaching the sealing yoke to the neck of the can did not allow enough force to be applied to the lid to prevent leakage and entry of air into the can. To solve this problem George Lester had the sealing yoke engage the base of the glass jar to be able to exert more pressure.
Reading the patents, Lester indicates that the metal cans were used to deliver milk to consumers. In March of 1879 George Lester spoke before the College of Physicians in Philadelphia and described the use of his milk can in New York and Brooklyn. He displayed a glass jar (peculiar was the term they used) and said that the plan of delivering milk in sealed containers to consumers each morning had been in place for three years. He did not mention if the glass jar was used all three years or if the metal cans were used previously. Interestingly in both his talk and his patent papers, Lester used the term milk can rather than milk jar even when discussing the glass jar. He stated that the jars came in one and two quart capacities and that having the milk held under pressure in the jar improved the rise of the cream. Advantages of the wide mouth jar, mentioned in Lester's patent, were that it was easier for the consumer to access the cream and the jar was easily cleaned. In April of 1879 the Lester Milk Company started using this jar to deliver milk in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
Wide mouth dairy bottles were used for cottage cheese, sour cream and yogurt. Some dairies also sold salad dressings. These bottles are found both embossed, like the ones pictured here, and pyroglazed (picture). The only patented design of these bottles was the jar on the far right. It was called the Thrift Jar and was sold by the Ohio Creamery Supply Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The inventor of this dairy jar was Philip Arnold of Cleveland, Ohio who was granted a design patent on July 8, 1941. Most dairy jars of this style will be from Ohio dairies.
Dairy bottles left to right:
Tumbling Run Park Dairy - J. H. Brokhoff, pint, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Owens-Illinois, 1954
Generic Cottage Cheese, 12 ounces, no location, Thatcher Manufacturing Co., 1936
Golden State Company LTD., half pint, California, Owens-Illinois 1936
Otto's, half pint, Sandusky, Ohio, Lamb Glass Company, post 1941
Off page dairy jars left to right:
Alta Dena Dairy, pint, City of Industry, California, Liberty Glass Co., 1961
Dairy Distributers Inc., quart, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Owens-Illinois, 1943 
Most dairies also sold fruit juices. Typically these were not sold in the regular milk bottles but rather in specially designed bottles. Usually the surface of the bottle was textured rather than clear. These bottles can be embossed or pyroglazed. The half pint bottle in the center is embossed PAT. PNDG. on the base.
Juice bottles left to right:
Spreckels Russell Dairy Co., quart, San Francisco, California, Owens-Illinois, 1940
Bell-Brook, half pint, San Francisco, California, maker and date unknown
Arden, quart, Los Angeles, California, Owens-Illinois, 1941
Condensed milk was milk that had a portion of the water removed. It had a longer shelf life than regular milk. It was often sold in jars rather than bottles. Pictured above is a condensed milk jar with a screw type lid as well as a jar with a glass bail type lid similar to a fruit jar. The jar on the left with the screw type lid carries a patent date of May 15, 1894. This patent was issued to Frederick Smith of San Francisco, California concerning the method and apparatus for preserving condensed milk. His method allowed the condensed milk to be filled into the jars cold and then a paper diaphragm of waxed or greased paper was laid across the surface of the milk and then the lid was screwed on. This method excluded the air from the condensed milk to preserve it but did not require the milk to be heated in the jar, as one would do when canning preserves.
Condensed milk jars left to right:
American Condensed Milk Co., pint, San Francisco, California, maker unknown, pre-1920
Marvel Brand, 6 ounce, Danville, Illinois, Kearns, Gorsuch Bottle Co., pre-1937 
When one thinks of dairy products the most common would be cow's milk, however milk from other animals was also used for human consumption. Goat milk was one dairy product that was also sold in glass bottles. Not near as common as cow milk bottles, goat milk bottles can be found in round and square shapes as well as embossed and pyroglazed styles. Some people that have trouble digesting cows milk prefer milk from goats. The bottle on the left is from a goat dairy.
A little more unusual would be mare's (horse) milk. The two bottles on the right are labeled SIPHON KUMYSGEN BOTTLE FOR PREPARING KUMYSS FROM KUMYSGEN. The manufacturer on both bottles is embossed as REED & CARNRICK, N.Y. The cobalt blue bottle has a line about an inch from the bottom labeled POWDER MARK and a line at the shoulder labeled WATER MARK. The smaller aqua bottle has a line embossed at the shoulder of the bottle labeled USE 7 TABLETS FILL TO THIS LINE. These bottles were made in a hinged bottom mold and are very crude glass. The tops are hand finished. These bottles probably were made in the late 1800's. We have seen them in cobalt blue and an aqua color like these as well as amber glass.
Kumyss (sometimes spelled koumiss in the medical journals) was a fermented drink popular in central Asia made from mare's milk. It reportedly was mildly alcoholic. Kumysgen, as advertised by Reed & Carnrick, was a dried preparation of kumyss. It was available as a powder or tablets. Water was added to the bottle and the bottle was shaken to reconstitute the powder or tablets. Reed & Carnrick were pharmacists and this was a nutritional drink used by doctors. It was commonly advertised in medical journals and other publications of the late 1800's (picture). Reed & Carnrick claimed it would aid gastric and intestinal indigestion or dyspepsia, pulmonary consumption, constipation, gastric and intestinal catarrh, fevers, anemia, chlorosis, rickets, scrofula, vomiting in pregnancy, Bright's disease, intestinal ailments of infants and cholera infantum. It was recommended for young children and convalescents from all diseases. It was described to be a product of pure, sweet milk (we assume they used cow's milk).
Milking cows is a tough job but we cannot imagine milking a horse. We were told that the foal was allowed to suckle to get the mare started milking and then as the foal was slowly removed the milking was finished by hand. At least they only had to deal with two teats instead of four. Mare's milk is lower in fat and protein than cow's milk but the sugars are higher. These sugars would make mare's milk more suitable to fermentation. When cow's milk is used for kumyss, sugars are usually added to aid the fermentation.
Milk bottles left to right:
Dingley Dell Goat Dairy, half pint, Stepney, Connecticut, Thatcher Manufacturing Co.
Siphon Kumysgen, Reed & Carnrick, approx 22 ounces, New York, manufacturer unknown, late 1800's
Siphon Kumysgen, Reed & Carnrick, approx 10 ounces, New York, manufacturer unknown, late 1800's 
Another type of dairy product used in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were milk modifiers. These were primarily designed to make cow’s milk easier to digest for invalids or to make cow’s milk more like human breast milk for infants after weaning or if mother’s milk was not available. There were two broad groups; those that did not contain milk but were designed to be added to cow’s milk and those that did contain milk and were intended to be added to water. The first group was probably better from a nutritional perspective since they usually contained more milk however milk was not always available or it’s quality could be suspect especially for infants or invalids.
The jars above would be examples of the second group that did contain milk. All of them contained malted forms of milk. Nowadays people think of malted milk as something in a milk shake but originally it was a nutritional product. As the name implies it was primarily a mixture of dried milk and the extract of malted grain. When grain is malted it is allowed to germinate and in the process enzymes are released that convert the starch in the grain into simpler sugars that are easier to digest. These enzymes could also act on the proteins and sugars in the milk to break them down and make them easier to digest. Maltose was the main sugar produced in malting and hence the name.
James and William Horlick, originally from Chicago, Illinois and later from Racine, Wisconsin, were granted a patent on May 18, 1875 for a malted product that contained no milk but was intended to be added to milk. Eight years later, on June 5, 1883 William Horlick was granted a patent for what would become known as Horlick’s Malted Milk. This time their product contained cows milk and was claimed to be useful in the nutrition of infants and invalids. The powdered formula only needed to be added to water. William Horlick also produced his malted milk in a tablet form for which he received a patent on July 6, 1897. This product is still sold today.
Many other manufacturers produced forms of malted milk. The first jar on the left above contained Borden’s Malted Milk. We have seen references for this product back to the late 1800’s. The second jar contained Horlick’s malted milk, discussed above. One of the most interesting manufacturers of malted milk was the Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado. During prohibition they converted their brewery to producing a malted milk product when alcohol was illegal (picture).
The third, amber jar contained Cereal Milk. This product was manufactured by Wells Richardson & Company of Burlington, Vermont and was advertised to contain the purest Vermont dairy milk, the finest wheat-gluten flour, the best barley malt and milk sugar. Cereal Milk was advertised in the early 1900’s and this jar has a ground lip and would date to that period.
The last jar on the right held Wampole’s Milk Food. It’s makers, Henry K. Wampole & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, claimed it contained malted cereals, beef and milk. Company advertisements claimed “There is nothing in it that is not found in mother’s milk; there is nothing in mother’s milk that is not found in Wampole’s Milk Food”. A 1901 medical paper claimed it was the ideal preparation for the nourishment of persons undergoing treatment for opium or morphine addiction. One wonders how big a market that was. |
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