The Empire Milking Machine Company

Taylor Vacuum Engine

If you can help me find these exact cup parts, it would be appreciated. Also looking for a Stover or Fairbanks Morse vacuum pump engine as sold by the Empire Milking Machine Company of Rochester, New york.

ABOUT THE DAIRY COW

From a 1928 Empire catalog...

Before we can intelligently consider the best methods of taking milk from a cow, we must know all we can about the cow and how she secretes and gives down milk. Unless every milking condition is recognized and proper provision is made for the comfort and health of the cow, the results are bound to be unsatisfactory.

In the design of the Empire Milking Machine, all guess work has been eliminated because the cow and her calf have been used as guides.

How the Cow Stores Milk: Every hour of the day the cow is making milk. The glands in the upper part of the udder are constantly at work storing up milk solids. At milking time these solids are mixed with water and pass through the milk channels to the milk reservoirs which are immediately over the teats.

Most of the milk is made while the cow is being milked. It is therefore, of the utmost importance that nothing must be allowed to irritate, excite, or fret the cow at this time. Any of these things will cause her to hold back her milk, making it harder to get, causing her to make less milk.

In many successful dairies it is the rule that for an hour previous to milking, the cows must have perfect quiet, no loud talking or anything to disturb or excite them. While the cows are being milked the same rules are observed and no roughness in milking or handling the cows is tolerated.

A Delicate Mechanism: The modern dairy cow is a delicate, nervous animal. She is easily upset, especially when any unusual strain is put upon her udder or when there is even slight teat irritation. The teats are extremely sensitive and they are easily injured. Even when the same person milks a cow every day, by hand, she is likely to be restive and uncomfortable when the milking begins. With a stranger on the milking stool few cows will keep up to their standard production. For best results, milking must be regular, uniform and comfortable. This is almost impossible when milking is done by ha;d, because after milking a few cows the hands become tired and often the milker's temper becomes frayed. Or he is in a hurry to get the chore done and is likely to be a bit rough.

How Should a Cow be Milked: The calf is the world's champion milker. Hands and machines can only imitate the calf's method. Hand milking is much further away from the natural calf style of milking than the Empire way which recreates the sucking and massage action of the calf so perfectly that heifers and even old cows have been observed licking the Empire pail just as they would lick their calves. Milking should be so comfortable that it does not disturb the cow. During milking cows continue to contentedly chew their cuds when Empire Milkers are used. Theyhave been knownto try and lie down while milking was going on. When it comes to the question of suiting the cow, there is no doubt about where the Empire Milker stands.

Alternate Milking or All Teats at Once: If men had four hands, no question would ever have been raised as to how many teats to milk at one time. If it were easier to milk two teats in unison instead of alternately, which gives each hand a little rest and allows the milker to focus his at­tention on the hand which is giving the pressure, that would have become the accepted method.

As it stands, we have only two hands and it is easier and more comfortable to milk in rhythm, first one hand and then the other. So many have come to took upon this as the natural, normal way.

Let the Cow Decide: The cow can't talk but let us see what she might say. In the first place she secretes milk in all four quarters of her udder at one time and lets it down as soon as secreted. If only one teat is being milked the weight of the milk let down to the other teats soon distresses a cow unless it is drawn away. It puts a strain on the udder muscles and supports (mammary muscles) which is bad for the cow. When the calf milks he frequently switches from teat to teat and relieves this strain.

With hand milking this switching around is imperfectly accomplished. Two teats are milked and then the other two. Then all the teats are stripped dry.

Milk Barn

Using the Empire Milker, all the teats are milked at once. As fast as the cow lets down her milk it is drawn away from all four quarters of the udder. There is no unnecessary strain put on the mammary muscles. The time taken to produce and get rid of the milk is less than by any other method.

Consequently, the strain on the cow is less. To put it another way, she has the strength and energy to put into producing which is wasted by a longer, slower method of milking. That this is not mere theory is abundantly proved by hundreds of letters from Empire users which tell of increased daily milk production and longer lactation periods when Empire Milking was substituted for hand milking.

Easy Milkers and Hard Milkers: But you say all cows are not alike. Some are easy milkers and some are hard milkers. Some have small teats and some have large teats. Cows with three teats are not uncommon. The teat pattern on the udder varies. Some cows have one or two large teats and the others much smaller. Cows are not built to any set standard.

All these things are true. They were all considered. They are all provided for in the Empire Milker. Otherwise, we could not ask a practical dairy farmer to think of investing a dollar of his hard earned cash in a machine which would only work on a few of his cows and actually cost him more in time, labor and money than hand milking.

Like a Sucking Calf: To say that the Empire milks like a sucking calf, is a broad statement but it is literally true. As the calf takes the teat into its mouth the teat is massaged from tip to udder. Then the calf sucks to draw the milk. As its mouth fills, the suction is re­leased while the milk is swal­lowed. This allows the blood drawn toward the end of the teat by suction to flow back to the udder. The three-way massage of the teat by the calf's tongue and the roof of its mouth beginning at the tip of the teat and going up to the udder stimulates this return of the blood to the udder before the calf again sucks more milk into the mouth.

How exactly this calf-milking is recreated by the patented Empire Teat Cup is explained in detail later on. It illustrates how accurately nature's model milker has been studied and copied in the making of the Empire Milker.

What Suits the Cow Benefits the Owner - Over twenty years of successful milking of all breeds and types of cows by the Empire Milker is the best kind of evidence. Scores of letters written by owners of Empire Milking Machines, who have used them continuously for periods ranging from a few months to seventeen years, indicate the settled conviction of progressive dairy farmers that this milker meets every requirement of the dairy cow and its owner.

Dairy Barn

Showing the complete installation, direct connected motor driven pump, vacuum line, vacuum tank, relief valve, mercury gauge, stall cocks, vacuum line to pulsator, vacuum line to teat cup that draws the milk, air line to teat cup that collapses the inflation, teat cup, double unit and single unit in operation.

PATENT: Milking Machine Pulsator

PHOTOS: Teat Cups, Pulsator and Claws, Pulsator.

See my DeLaval page with more milking machine engines.

Visit Smokstak Antique Engines for more discussion.




See my Alpha Horizontal and my Lauson Vertical gas engines that ran the vacuum pumps for these milkers.


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