Gillies, Alexander

Bright Sparcs
Biographical entry

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Dairyman and Inventor

Alexander Gillies, a dairy farmer at Terang, bought a Lawrence-Kennedy machine about 1901 and made improvements to it. In 1902-3 he patented a two-chambered teat cup, and an air admission hole at the top of the teat cup which allowed the milk to clear away efficiently.These were significant advances which are still in universal use. The improved machine became known as the LKG (Lawrence-Kennedy-Gillies) and some 300 of them were said to be in use in Australia and New Zealand by 1905.

Gillies also developed a simple tubular 'claw' for connecting the milk and air tubes from the four teat cups with the receiver and pulsator, and this design has also survived until the present day.

Online Sources

See Also

Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/scripts/tia-dynindex.php3?EID=P003563. [ Details ]

Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.

Prepared by: Rosanne Walker
Created: 25 May 2001
Modified: 24 May 2006

Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007
Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
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Updated: 26 February 2007
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P003563b.htm

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