A while back, (2004) the museum acquired a milk cooler and bottler from the Brown Dairy on California Mesa.
The unit was used by the B.J. Brown Dairy and then his son, Jack C. Brown for many years. Milk from a dairy herd of 30-40 milking cows was processed through this cooler and bottler each day. Then B. J. or Jack delivered the milk to customers in the city of Delta.
The unit was designed to cool the milk and bottle the milk while still cool. Cold water was pumped though the hoses on the left side of the cooling unit while raw milk was poured into the top trough.
The milk would drain from the trough, cascade down over the cool pipes, then collect in the lower trough, where it would then flow into the basin below. From that basin the milk flowed into bottles to be capped. Two bottled could be filled at a time. Caps were placed on the bottles with the mechanism on the right side of the cooler.
It also has adjustments for different capacity bottles. You must view this unique artifact to appreciate the ingenuity which went into its design.
Jim Wetzel
Director, Delta County Historical Society and Museum
(970) 874-8721
Linda
