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The Rotolactor
Plainsboro's Walker-Gordon Laboratory revolutionized the dairy industry
This tiled sign hung outside of a massive milking machine fittingly dubbed the rotolactor. Designed by Walker-Gordon, the rotolactor relied on a cutting-edge, merry-go-round structure to milk cows in record time. From an original plot of forty acres in rural Plainsboro, the company grew rapidly into a 2,300-acre complex with thirty-three barns housing over two thousand head of cattle – all connected to the rotolactor. In 1929, the Borden Company acquired the laboratory and it became the home of their real-life bovine mascot, Elsie the Cow.
Walker-Gordon was more than an experimental laboratory. It was also a tourist destination. From a built-in observation area, visitors could marvel at the rotolactor machinery below and fifteen tiled murals created by the Mueller Mosaic Tile Company that decorated the room's interior. Depicting the international history of the dairy industry in brilliantly-colored tiles, these murals – like the smaller sign exhibited here – were among many magnificent architectural decorations produced by one of New Jersey's preeminent tile companies. |