Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Bottle |
Caption |
Quart glass cream bottle with spoon |
Description |
Clear glass quart size cream top milk bottle and attached tin CreamTop separator/spoon. Bottle is marked New Ulm Dairy, The Home of Pure Dairy Products. "A Cream that Whips When You Want It." From the 1920s. Patent Applied For. Donor's notes: "This is the type of bottle used with spoon which skimmed off cream...cream collected in neck of bottle to make skimming easier. All creameries at this time had same type bottles [that were] somewhat similar in shape. The spoon did not come with bottle. It was purchased separately. Or one could just pour off part of cream from upper part of neck for whipping. [Spoon] used to skim off cream from special milk bottle - 1 qt size which had an unusual neck so spoon would fit in. Used at Annandale 1921. Cream at creamery was 3.00 quart so...(?)...used it freely for homemade ice cream." Abby Lauzer Andrews graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1912 and the University of Minnesota in Home Economics in 1917. She married Walter A. Andrews, Hutchinson, in 1917. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1917 and was a School Superintendent in southern Minnesota towns and in 1944 became director of elementary education in the Minnesota State Dept. of Education. Cream Top milk bottles had a bulb at the top of the neck that had a smaller diameter opening at the base of the bulb than the opening at the top of the bottle. When the cream rose up in the bulb a special spoon or separator could be used to close off the neck between the cream and the milk. This allowed the cream to be poured out of the bottle and the milk to remain. The separator was not intended to spoon out the cream as many people think. The curved end of the CreamTop separator had a point that could be used as a milk cap remover. These separators were supplied to licensed dairymen by the Cream Top Bottle Corporation at a cost of 5 cents. They were usually given to customers for free. Cream Top bottles were patented on March 3, 1925 by Norman Henderson of Albany, New York and the patent was assigned to the Cream Top Bottle Corporation. The Cream Top separator was patented Sept. 2, 1924 by Herbert Hill, also of Albany, New York and the patent was also assigned to the Cream Top Bottle Corporation. The separator was patented in 1924 prior to the bottle being patented in 1925. It appears that the bottle patent was applied for on April 16, 1921 and the separator patent was applied for a year later on August 3, 1922. For some reason the separator patent was granted prior to the patent for the bottle. Trade advertisements for the Cream Top milk bottle appeared as early as September of 1924 and alluded to the bottles being already in use for two years, well before the issuing of the patent. Some Cream Top milk bottles will be embossed Patent Pend. or Pat. Appl'd For. The Cream Top Bottle Corporation claimed many advantages for their milk bottles. Since they were only allowed to be used by one dairy in a given territory they were easily identified and difficult for other dealers to steal and use. The Cream Top Bottle Corporation also claimed that their bottles would experience less breakage due to their design. They also claimed that this unique design would discourage consumers from keeping bottles for preserving foods (a common problem with regular milk bottles) or storing other liquids. Since the Cream Top milk bottles were instantly recognizable they tended to be good advertisement for a dairy using them. They also were compatible with all filling, capping and washing equipment used with conventional milk bottles although Cream Top milk bottles were definitely more difficult to wash. |
Catalog Number |
1987-0782-001 |
Search Terms |
Milk bottles New Ulm Dairy, New Ulm MN |
Subjects |
Milk bottles |