Milking machine is a device that milks cows or goats. Most dairy farmers milk their animals with such machines because the devices milk animals much faster than can be done by hand and keep the milk cleaner.
A milking machine consists of a number of tube-shaped teat cups connected to a pulsator and hoses. Each teat cup consists of a stainless steel outer shell and an inner rubber liner. The animal’s teats fit into the hollow inner chambers of the liners. A vacuum in the inner chamber holds the teat cup onto the teat. The space between the liner and shell forms the outer chamber. The pulsator regulates the milking process by changing the pressure in this chamber. During the milking phase, the pulsator creates a vacuum, and milk flows from the teat. During the rest phase, it allows air at normal atmospheric pressure into the chamber, and the liner collapses around the teat, giving a massaging action. This alternating vacuum and normal pressure resembles the sucking of a calf. The milk drawn from the teat flows through the attached hose into a pipeline and storage tank.
Anna Baldwin, a New Jersey farm woman, invented the suction milking machine in 1878. But Carl Gustav de Laval, a Swedish engineer, developed the first commercially successful machine. This device went on the market in 1918.
