Cow Milker Patents

The pressure machines were an attempt to emulate the action of the human hand in manipulating the teat. Such early machines had many drawbacks, including inability to adapt to different size teats and a tendency to force some of the milk backward. The early vacuum machines used a hand pump and applied a constant vacuum to the teat cups, or even to the entire udder, causing obvious problems of blood congestion and unsatisfactory milking. The claims made by most of the milker patents involved methods of solving the multitude of problems inherent in either of the two methods of mechanical milking. True progress was slow, despite the parade of “Rube Goldberg” type devices that passed through the patent office. Many of these milkers were actually marketed, and some successfully. L.O. Colvin worked hard both in this country and in England to establish the reputation of his milking machines. And, he won a great deal of press coverage and resulting sales of his machines. Roth also attained some degree of fame with one of his several early milkers illustrated and described favorably in an 1886 issue of the Scientific American. William Mehring’s famous foot treadle milker was marketed well into the 20th century and can still be ocassionally found at a country auction. While pipeline milking was flourishing on large farms in the early 20th century, there was still a market for a device to milk just one or two cows. One unique device, patented in 1910, was a vacuum milker wired to a battery, to cause the cow to let down her milk by means of an electric shock.