Hillview Dairy / Luce Dairy / Luce Milk Plant

“Having completed our new milk plant, we welcome the public to call and inspect ‘Ithaca’s Modern Milk Plant’ at any time.

Special attendants will be on hand Friday and Saturday, October 21 and 22, both afternoon and evening to explain all operations concerned in handling milk and cream in a clean, sanitary way.

Luce Dairy Co.

W. A. Luce, 410 Hillview Place

Telephone 9840”

“Announcement: Luce Dairy Co.,” Ithaca Journal-News, October 20, 1927, 5.

  “Users of milk, when they open their doors early in the morning to pick up the bottles left by the milkman in the hours before dawn, probably give little thought to the machinery behind the provision of milk to customers. It is an intricate and interesting process.

  William A. Luce, milk dealer, has built at 410 Hillview Place, a small but compact and efficient plant, where the milk which he distributes to customers undergoes the processes that leave it pure, wholesome, and ready for use. The plant was recently visited by the Industrial Committee of the Ithaca Chamber of Commerce.

  The plant is located a short distance from Hillview Place, in the rear of Mr. Luce’s home. The plant itself is entirely surrounded by a driveway, which aids in the speedy handling of raw milk and the bottled product. To one side of the driveway are stables in which the horses and wagons, still used by the company, are housed.

  In the front of the plant is the office where business is transacted, and in the rear are located the various pieces of machinery used in the pasteurizing, bottling, and distribution of milk. All the milk is pasteurized.

  In one wall there is a receiving entry through which raw milk in cans from farmers is brought into the building and started on its way to the bottles and the delivery wagons. Samples of the milk are taken and a preservative is added, to keep the samples fresh for inspection within a period of one month. The milk is tested frequently, and the samples are kept for a state test for 10 days in the event such a test is required. 

  The Babcock test for butter fat is also made in the entry room. The milk is then placed in receiving vats, while the empty cans are placed in a mechanical washer, where they are washed and dried and stacked for further use.

  The milk is pumped from the receiving vats where it is subjected to a temperature ranging from 90 to 100 degrees. From the heater the milk is passed through a filter to remove sediment to glass lined pasteurizing tanks where a temperature of from 130 to 140 degrees is maintained for 30 minutes.

  The pasteurizing tanks, located in a room above the main floor, are most modern. Two of them have a capacity of 300 gallons each, and a third, of 60-gallon capacity, is used for pasteurizing cream and buttermilk. The smaller tank can be connected with a cream separator, which has a capacity of 6,000 gallons an hour.

  All the pipe connections from the receiving vats to the pasteurizing tanks are removed and cleaned daily. The tanks themselves, by virtue of the glass lining, can be cleaned with ease.

  From the pasteurizing tanks the milk is passed to a cooling system of horizontal pipes, fixed vertically. The milk passes over these pipes into a trough on the floor below, where pipe connections carry it to the bottling and capping machine. The cooling apparatus is operated by the direct expansion ammonia system.

  The bottling and capping machine is one of the most ingenious in the plant. Empty bottles are stacked ready for filling, and they are placed on a circular wheel. Each bottle is raised on its own individual stand, and as it passes under funnels, the right quantity of milk is poured in from the tank above. The bottle passes on, and the cap is automatically placed in position. As the bottles come off the machine, they are placed in boxes and shoved through an opening into the cooler, where they are stored until they are ready for distribution.

  Empty bottles brought back to the plant are washed before they are ready for use again. They are placed bottoms up in their box racks and placed on an endless chain, starting in a room near the side entry. As they pass into the plant itself, streams of hot water are shot up into the bottles, and they are thoroughly washed by the process.

  The production of the Luce plant is now about 2,000 quarts a day. Delivery is still made principally by horse and wagon, although motor trucks are used for the longer hauls. There are three trucks and three wagons. Delivery is started before dawn.

  The Luce plant provides the farmers from whom it buys milk with strainers and a funnel apparatus for filling cans. These strainers tend to protect the supply, as they are destroyed after their first use.

  The company also provides customers with an insulated box for receiving milk at their homes. The box protects milk in all kinds of weather, tending to prevent spoiling in hot and freezing in cold weather.” 

“Know Ithaca: W. A. Luce, Milk Dealer” Ithaca Journal-News, May 23, 1928, 13.