Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[fishweed]

The centrifugal separator was first manufactured by Gustaf de Laval, making it possible to separate cream from milk faster and more easily, without having to let the milk set and sour. Possibly because of the fact that Gustaf de Laval manuafactured the first cream separators,[3] many people give the credit of the invention to de Laval (1870s). However, many patents appear before his, all of them labeled as 'improvements'. One of the very first specifically for cream separation was patented by W. C. L. Lefeldt and C. G. O. Lentsch.[4] Probably the origins of the idea of using centrifugal force to separate cream from milk is unknown.

Gustaf de Laval's construction made it possible to start the largest separator factory in the world, Alfa Laval AB. The milk-separator represented a significant industrial breakthrough in Sweden. Within the first decade in the 1900s there were over twenty separator manufacturers in Stockholm, Sweden. Separators (albeit in slightly modified form) are also used on ships to purify oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_separator#History