America's Favorite Beverage Comes Clean

It's 1864 and Gail Borden's condensed milk is available to the soldiers fighting the Civil War.  With his son, John Gail fighting for the North and his other son, Lee, fighting with the Texas Calvary for the South, Borden's condensed milk was only purchased by the Union Army as field rations.  The New York plant was producing 16,000 quarts a day, but Borden could not keep up with demand.  By the end of 1866, another plant in Elgin, Illinois was purchasing a 300,000 gallons of milk each year from farmers.

Gail Borden died in 1875, but his company and his strict standards of quality did not.  The Borden Company began selling fresh whole milk in 1876, but compared to today's methods, delivery was still crude.  Bacteria tests were still unknown and sanitation was confined to the factory processing plant.  Once it left the factory, the milk was delivered by ladling out a customer's order from a common can.

By 1885 John Gail Borden was at the helm of Borden and instituted the process of bottling milk.  It was another decade before Louis Pasteur would introduce "pasteurization" to reduce bacteria in processed milk, and another 20 years before there was a test to detect tuberculosis in cows which would reduce the danger of passing that disease on to children.  Medical commissions were created state by state to "certify milk" and that would lead to healthier processing and delivery of one of America's favorite beverages.

Gail Borden had done his part 60 years before in seeing the need for cleanliness and humane standards in his company.  Farmers were educated in how to handle milk so that it could be offered to the public without "filthy milk" practices.  The infant mortality rate from drinking milk was greatly reduced and we have Gail Borden to thank for that.

Next time...Canning foods
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 30,] 1822, Joseph Marion Hernandez becomes the first Hispanic elected to Congress, in fact he was the first non-white person to serve at the highest levels of any of the three branches of the American federal government.  That long ago, hmmm. I think we might have forgotten?

Borden is a Commercial Hit

Condensed milk quickly became a commercial success.  Borden obtained financial support from a wealthy New York City grocer he met on the train and founded the New York Condensed Milk Company in 1858.  The first large scale milk condensing plant gave farmers a place to bring their milk to be condensed before market.

Borden's first advertisement:
"Borden's Condensed Milk: prepared in Litchfield County, Connecticut, is the only milk ever concentrated without the mixture of sugar or other substance, remaining easily soluble in water.  It is simply Fresh Country Milk from which the water is nearly all evaporated, nothing added.  The Committee of the Academy of Medicine recommends it is: 'an article that, for purity, durability, and economy is hitherto unequaled in the annals of the Milk Trade.'  One quart, by the addition of water makes 2 1/2 quarts, equal to cream, 5 quarts rich milk and 7 quarts good milk.  For Sale at 173 Canal Street, or delivered at dwellings in New York and Brooklyn at 25 cents a quart."

At the time of Borden's ad, the newspapers were reporting high infant mortality rates due to "filthy milk."  Milk was commonly distributed in the city as "swill milk" because it came from city cows fed on distiller's swill - the residue from distilleries.  This milk containing no butterfat and its blue color was artificially colored.  In addition it was transported in the same wagons as manure.

Along came Borden's sanitary fresh milk product which increased New York milk routes.  A new standard of cleanliness and quality by Borden sent inspectors to the farms producing his milk, and instruction was required of those farmers as well.  He followed humane practices for his cows, kept clean barns, clean udders, and separated manure from any milking operations.  Milk that arrived under 58 degrees was not accepted. 

Although it seemed to complicate the life of the farmer, it turned them into wholesale dairy farmers who no longer had to peddle their milk on the streets.  Farmer who contracted with Borden and kept his standards with regard to their cows and delivery, were guaranteed a steady check from Borden's company.

Next time...the war years
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 27, 1869,  Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok proves too wild for Kansas.  Just after midnight, Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter's Beer Saloon in Hay's City Kansas. Hickok ordered the men to stop, shooting Strawhun dead.  In the election that November, the people decided that Wild Bill used too aggressive means to uphold the law and elected his deputy to succeed him as sheriff. 

Eureka - Condensed Milk!

On a voyage across the Atlantic on rough seas in 1851, Gail Borden learned that the cows on board the ship were too seasick to produce milk.  Listening to the hungry babies on board crying, he began to think that his condensing procedure (that made the Meat Biscuit) might be used to provide milk in emergency situations such as that..

Borden knew that milk was one of the most fragile foods and people had tried before to preserve fresh milk and failed.  Cheese was the obvious answer, but Borden wanted to condense whole milk.  All the theories of the day said it couldn't be done, but Borden did not believe that.  In Europe there had been some success in evaporating milk to preserve it, but it had proven unmarketable. Preserving milk wasn't difficult, but preserving the quality and taste was another matter. 

Borden began by boiling milk over a charcoal fire and adding brown sugar to it before sealing it in glass.  Although it would keep for months, it had a dark color and smelled like molasses.  Next Borden bought a vacuum pan but that caused the milk to stick to the sides of the pan when heated, then foamed up and boiled over. 

At this point Borden was advised to give the whole idea up...but that wasn't an option for Borden.  He added a bit of grease to the vacuum pan and Eureka!  Condensed milk!  The innovation was so simple that he had trouble convincing the patent office that he had done anything to patent.  Borden explained that as soon as milk came out of the cow it began to change - to decompose, and only his vacuum would keep the milk fresh before sealing.  The patent was issued for evaporating milk in a vacuum. 

Next time...The commercial success of condensed milk
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 23, 1875, Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry.  He later broke out of jail and roamed the American West, eventually earning the reputation as an outlaw and a record of 21 murders.  His life was short and ended in his being shot in 1881 in New Mexico by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

Gail Borden- Inventor and Pubic Servant

Gail Borden was a land agent in Texas who wanted to find a way to make food more portable for those pioneers traveling west in the 1800s.  Borden had been born on a farm in New York, then migrated to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana where he knew firsthand the problems of westward travels.  He was a self-taught surveyor and schoolteacher before coming to Texas in 1829.

His long public career in Texas began in 1835 when Borden and a friend found the weekly newspaper, The Telegraph and Texas Register, the first newspaper to last more than two years in Texas.  He became the official printer for the Republic of Texas, printing the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836.  Borden was named official surveyor before moving to Galveston to become the Collector of Port, where he designed the city street layouts, the water supply and a became seller of land lots.

Borden was also an inventor.  His "Bath House" was a portable way for ladies to bathe in the waters of the Gulf in privacy.  For his wedding anniversary, he gave his wife a revolving dining table with a center that rotated to serve individual guests.  Other inventions included his own steamboat and his "Terraqueous Machine" which was a sail driven covered wagon for land or sea.  Although it was amphibious, when tested in the Gulf waters, it capsized, dumping all his passengers in the water.

Borden's most important discovery in 1849 was an improved process for preserving the nutrition of meat by extraction.  Combining the condensed extracted meat with flour, he made a biscuit or cracker for carrying over long journeys.  Advertising his own product in 1850, Borden showed the benefits for seamen, travelers, explorers and anyone traveling in Indian Country where a campfire could signal danger.  The first arctic exploration carried the Meat Biscuit canisters along.  In 1851 the Meat Biscuit was exhibited alongside McCormick's Virginia Reaper and Colt's Revolver in London's Crystal Palace Exhibition. 

Borden spent six years and $60,000 promoting his Meat Biscuit.  It was deemed unsightly and unpalatable unless under dire circumstances.  Borden, however, had a better idea - which in 50 years would come to mean milk to Americans. 

Next time...Bessie the Cow
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 19, 1827, Jim Bowie stabs a Louisiana banker with the Bowie knife.  The actual inventor of the Bowie knife was probably not Jim himself but his brother, Rezin Bowie who reportedly came up with the design after nearly being killed in a vicious knife fight.