Condensed
Milk
From: The
Manufacturer and Builder, May 1878
Milk can be preserved in three ways;
one is to evaporate most of its water, so as to leave a thick emulsion
of the casein, butter, milk, sugar, and salts. This is best done by
means of a vacuum pump, aided by moderate heat; such milk will keep at
least three or four times as long as milk not thus treated.
The next method is to mix such
milk with white sugar, of equal bulk, when it may be preserved for
weeks, and, in air-tight vessels, even for years.
The third method is to dry
entirely the latter mixture of milk and sugar, by evaporating all the
water, until it assumes a granular state. We have such milk from the
World's Fair held in New York in 1852, and it is still in good
condition, notwithstanding it is only kept in a wide-mouthed,
glass-stoppered jar, and has often been opened.
Gail Borden first introduced,
nearly 20 years ago, condensed milk in New York city, and its use has
been steadily increasing ever since. In a short time competition sprang
up, and the first competing condensed milk company, laboring under the
impression that the patent secured by Mr. Borden to condense the milk
in a vacuum pan was unassailable, condensed the milk by heat, agitation
and air currents; a paddle-wheel, like that of a steamboat, threw the
milk upward, while an air current traversed the spokes, so as to remove
rapidly the watery vapors evolved. These air currents caused so rapid a
cooling that the method was very wasteful in regard to the consumption
of fuel; but this was not all, a more serious drawback became
apparent—the milk thus condensed did not keep longer than
non-condensed milk, and was in this respect far inferior to Borden's,
which keep good four times as long.
The editor of this journal,
who was at that time (1862) Professor of Chemistry in the Cooper
Institute, was consulted in regard to the cause of this difficulty, and
the suspicion was expressed by the competing condensed milk company
that Mr. Borden, contrary to his declarations, put an alkali into his
condensed milk, so as to counteract the tendency of all milk to become
sour. We knew better than this, as we had analyzed Mr. Borden's
condensed milk a few years before, at his request, and given a
testimonial in regard to its purity. But in order to satisfy all, we
made another analysis of the milk as sold at that time by the Borden
firm, and found it to agree perfectly with the best normal cow's milk
from which most of the water had been removed; so that there was
another cause for the difference, and this had to be found out. As the
result of this investigation carries an instructive lesson with it we
will here publish it.
We placed two samples of the
condensed milk (one of Borden's and one of the competing company's)
under the bell-jar of an air-pump, and on exhausting the air the
first-named milk did not show anything particular, while the other milk
swelled up to an enormous bulk, as if boiling, and gave off numerous
air bubbles. Here at once the cause of the trouble was revealed. The
Borden milk had, with its waters also the air removed, of which the
oxygen is especially absorbed by liquids which come in contact with the
same; while in the milk of the competing company, on the contrary, not
only was the air not removed, but oxygen was incorporated by the
combined effects of the stirring and air currents, intended only to
remove the water, but which in exchange gave to the milk a dose of
oxygen—in fact, saturated the milk with it. It is not
surprising then that it soon turned sour, especially when prepared
during seasons when thunder-storms were making the atmosphere rich in
ozone.
Our advice therefore was to
abandon the stirring process, or at least to submit the milk, after
being condensed according to their method, to the operation of a
vacuum, so as to remove the objectionable air which it had absorbed.
This was done, especially when it was found that our opinion was
correct in regard to the value of the Borden patent. We held, namely,
that nobody could uphold a patent claim to evaporate any fluid by means
of a vacuum pump, as this is an old and well-known process, applied to
sugar refineries, the making of extracts, and scores of other
industrial operations.
There are now several
condensed milk companies operating in New York city, and others in most
large cities of the United States while the advantages of its use are
more and more universally acknowledged.
The text is an article from the periodical Manufacturer and Builder,
Volume 10, Issue 5, page 106, (May 1878). Published by Western and
Company, New York.
(source)
More articles:
Gail Borden - A biography
published in
1866 from A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860...
Borden's meat biscuit was his first invention, which preserved meat extracts and drew much praise in several articles in the Scientific American periodical.
Borden's meat biscuit patent was titled "Preparation of Portable Soup-Bread," issued as U.S. Patent No. 7,066 on 5 Feb 1850.
Military use of the meat biscuit was also recognized as highly suitable for meal rations, and was favorably compared in the Scientific American periodical against the difficulties experienced by other countries having to preserve meats for their military needs.
Awards were presented
for Borden's meat biscuit at exhibitions both home and abroad. In
England, at the London Great Exhibition, first class medals recognized
Borden's invention, in the company of other American winners such as
C.H. McCormick for his "Virginia Reaper,” and Charles Goodyear
for his “India Rubber
Fabrics.”
Borden's condensed milk was his next great invention,
which launched his very successful diary company supplying his Eagle
brand milk to cities distant from farm supply, and was also recorded in
several Scientific American articles.
The condensed milk patent gives Borden's description
of his method in U.S. Patent No. 15,553 issued 19 Aug 1856 - the first
effective commercial process in the U.S. for condensing and
preserving milk.
Borden's fruit juice concentrating patent shows his continuing interest
in preserving more types of food detailed in U.S. Patent 35,919, issued
22 July 1862, titled "Improvement in Concentrating and Preserving For
Use Cider and Other Juices of Fruits."
A quotation - the epitaph
from Gail Borden's gravestone.
