Sliding-Frame Churn: Push and Pull a Frame on Top and a Cord Spins Tilted, Perforated Beaters Back and Forth

"These beaters I construct of a depth two or three times greater than their width, and set them at an angle of from five to ten degrees to the perpendicular of the dasher-shaft, and so that they all incline one way. They are also perforated with a series of holes to effect a more minute subdivision of the particles of the milk."

From 20 mm hardwood board make a box 300 x 300 mm inside and 400 deep, glued and screwed, its inside joints sealed with silicone sealant, standing on a base board 40 mm larger all round as the ledge a. Screw a hardwood block 60 x 60 x 20 mm in the floor's centre as the step a3 and bore it 21 mm, 15 deep. Cut a lid to fit inside the top, bored 26 mm in the centre for the shaft and 40 mm near one corner for the filling opening; fit a rubber stopper as the plug c.

Cut four triangular hardwood strips 50 mm on the short sides, 350 long, with a 15 mm slot along each, and glue and screw one into each corner. Cut four hardwood breakers 60 x 15 mm, 350 long, drill each with two rows of 12 mm holes, and slide them into the slots so their edges face the shaft, 140 mm from it; they lift out for cleaning.

Cut a 35 mm square hardwood shaft 375 mm long; turn or carve its foot to a 20 mm round pin 15 long and its top to a 25 mm round 90 long. Cut two hardwood beaters 220 x 50 x 20 mm, two and a half times as deep as wide, and drill each with four 14 mm holes. Mortise them through the shaft at right angles to each other, 55 and 115 mm above the floor, each tilted 8 degrees from upright, both the same way, checked with the protractor.

Screw a hardwood ledge 50 x 50 mm, 420 long, on the top of each of two opposite sides; cut a slot 26 mm wide and 32 deep across each ledge 180 mm each side of the middle, and lower the ledges' middle 15 mm to clear the cord. Make the frame from two bars 24 x 30 mm, 700 long, and two cross-bars 24 x 30 mm, 384 long, pinned at the corners with dowels so it comes apart, with a turned dowel handle on each bar's ends. Set the bars in the slots. Key the pulley on the shaft's top with a dowel through both. Tie a cord to one cross-bar, take it round the pulley two or three times, and tie it to the other, tight.

Pour about 10 litres of heavy cream at about 15 °C, checked with the thermometer, through the filling opening and put in the plug. Take the frame's handles and push and pull it steadily, timing it; with a large churn two people can work it, one each side. When the butter comes, lift off the frame, pulley and lid, lift out the dasher and breakers, take out the butter, tip the buttermilk into a bowl, wash the butter in cold water until it runs clear, salt and weigh it.

**William Morgan** of Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia, US 27,559, 20 March 1860, "Churn". He did not claim dashers turned back and forth, nor the forms of dashers and breakers, but the inclined perforated beaters with the removable perforated breakers and the sliding frame. He made it all of hard wood, "oak, ash, hickory &c.", with no metal; ours is hardwood with a printed pulley. The beaters' proportions are his; every size is ours.