Label
Sales Sample, 1883
William Cooley
Vermont Farm Machinery Company
Wood, metal
Anonymous gift, 1957.19
Dairy has long been one of Vermont’s primary industries, and when refrigerated railroad cars provided easier, faster access to major markets in Montreal, New York, and Boston, production grew exponentially. Rather than cheese and other preserved products as the primary export, it became feasible for Vermonters to sell cream and milk out of the state.
William Cooley of Waterbury invented a number of things, including a variety of gasoline engines, granite industry tools, and other machine parts. This creamer was one of his earlier efforts, patented in the 1870s. The creamer was found to be more efficient at extracting cream from milk than other similar machines, and the Vermont Farm Machine Company purchased the patent from Cooley to manufacture and distribute his machine.
Within a few years, 8,000 dairies were using the creamer. Its more efficient process made the development of centralized creameries possible, streamlining production rather than the individual on-farm process that had dominated before. The design proved popular enough that the company spent time in court protecting its patent against infringement on a number of different occasions.
This creamer is a salesman’s model, intended to show the mechanics of the machine but not necessarily to actually produce cream. The smallest production model of Cooley’s Creamer was at least twice as large as this one.