old milk container?

dobipup81 · Oct 18, 2005

Hello all

I am newbie here and I hope I am posting this at the right place.
The other day I found an old milk container (at least I believe thats what it is)
I tried to research it on the internet, to find out about the origin, age, value, ... but certainly I cant find anything about it. All the pictures of old milk cans look different than the one I got. On the container it says Ellis & Sons, Philadelphia " Ellisco" and on another tag it says 5 Gallons.
So I thought I post it here and hope somebody could help me a lil bit to find out more about it.

Many thanks

Tina

aboss · Dec 3, 2005

MOTOR OIL!!!??!! NAW! My granpap didn't have no Texaco cows. Well maybe the cans did double duty. But 10-30w milk? Ya lost me there. Alex

sniper19612003 · Dec 4, 2005

Well beleave it or not, farmers back in the day wold use those cans to hold milkin.
My father used those cans on the farm when he was a kid. Even though he has passed on 2 1/2
years ago, I kept them. I even have one with a screw top on it.
Guess back in the day they used what ever was availible to them.

dobipup81 · Dec 5, 2005

i got some pics here from some really nice guy who helped me in researching. they are pictures of an original catalog from the ellisco company. they only produced oilcans (siderack cans) and no milkcans. i hope the pics turned out aight, because they were in pdf file and i had to take a screenshot of em.

tina

aboss · Dec 7, 2005

Hi-- nice find on the pics! To me, what sets your can apart from the others shown is the lack of a semi-circular plate inside the lip of the spout. Granted, we can't see inside the oil cans very well, but................ I can't come up with a reason for an oil can to have such a spout. Maybe some were modified for use as cream separators. You might have some luck by contacting a major agricultural college such as Univ of Minnesota, maybe send them a pic of the can in question. Someone there wll have an answer, I bet. In any event, Happy Hunting and Happy Holidays to you and yours.. Alex

dobipup81 · Dec 8, 2005

these catalog pictures are from some nice guy who used to work for the ellisco company. he is somewhat familiar with the history of the company, so he started doing some phone calls for me. otherwise i would ve never gotten any brochure pictures like these

and im really happy about them

he is still doing some researches on the number of the can and trying to find out the date when it got made. will let you all know more as soon i get something back

happy holidays to you too alex (and the rest

)

tina

ZumbroKid · Dec 8, 2005

Most of you folks must be city folks! Now us that was raised in the country and have pratical experience pulling a few cow teats. Can tell you that was a can to pour into after milking the cow. After a couple of cows were milked it was taken and dumped into a larger bulk container. If you never pulled any cow teats, you got to give it a try, you don't know how much fun it is!