“Necessity (really) is the Mother of Invention”

Have you ever given thought to a cow, especially when it is being milked?

Go back at least 120 years and imagine yourself in a rustic old wooden barn on a farm in Townsend Harbor.  The sound of the old timbers creaking, seeing a few chickens scratching on the dirt floor searching for some dropped grain, the scent of fresh hay from the loft, and the cooing of doves from the cote.

Then detect the aroma of a large farm animal. Turn and see a large cow tethered to a post and the farmer’s wife, squatting on a wobbly three- legged stool, and reaching forward, to milk the cow.

Does the cow think about this or is it infinitely more concerned about the stings from the nasty, irritating, biting flies attacking its rump?

With a mighty swish of its not so clean tail the cow attempts to alleviate the pain.  However, there is that person milking and in the path of that swish!

Frank, she done it again she yells as the milk spews all over the barn floor for the third time that week!  Frank, you have got to do something about this!

And through necessity the much improved ‘Cow Still’ was born. 

Frank Conant, a farmer in the Townsend Harbor area, must have been an ingenious person.   Previously, in order to prevent the disaster of ‘swishing tails’, contraptions had been devised that anchored the tail to the cow’s rear leg.  However, these early devises had not proved to be too successful mainly because they were not easy to attach and detach.

Frank, after many trials, created a tool that would keep the tail out of the way. This worked so well that Frank in 1911 was able to apply for a United States patent.  To quote from the patent application, 

“My invention relates to the type of fastening device commonly called a cow-tail holder which is employed by dairy-men for securing a cow’s tail so that it cannot be switched about during milking of the cow”. 

“It is the object of this invention to provide a holder which shall be strong, simple and readily attachable and detachable requiring but one hand of the user for its manipulation”.

The patent was granted in 1912 and I’m sure Mrs. Conant was a very happy lady, as were many other people who had had to endure that swishing tail. 

And indeed a patent was issued!