Borden

At one time the Borden company was America’s largest dairy business. Gail Borden Jr., the founder of the Borden Condensed Milk Company, was born in Norwich, New York, in 1801. He died in 1874, leaving behind a thriving business, two sons, and a host of inventions and patents.

Borden worked as a surveyor during the 1820s and moved to Texas in 1829. For a time he edited the Telegraph and Texas Register, a newspaper founded by his brother and another partner to serve as the voice of the government of Texas when it was still a republic. Some claim that Borden wrote the famous headline “Remember the Alamo.” He turned his creative mind to inventing and soon came up with ideas for the lazy Susan and the prairie schooner, a sail-powered wagon. But the invention for which he is best known is a process using a vacuum evaporator to kill bacteria in fresh milk. He is reported to have committed himself to finding a safe milk product after witnessing several children die aboard ship after drinking contaminated milk. He borrowed the idea for using a vacuum evaporator from the Shakers, who used this technology to preserve fruit. Charles Page and Henri Nestlé also used vacuum evaporators to start their companies. In time, both of these companies would combine to form the Nestlé Company. Borden called his unique product “condensed milk.”