HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 19 



are now concentrated in vacuo under a low degree of heat, to 

 prevent discoloration or burning. 1 do not claim concentrating 

 milk in a vacuum pan for such a purpose, my object being to 

 exclude the air from the beginning of the process to the _ejicL 

 to prevent incipient decomposition. This is important and I 

 claim the discovery." 



The claim, United vStates Patent No. 15,553, August 19, 

 1856, is in the following words: 



"Producing concentrated sweet milk by evaporation in vacuo, 

 substantially as set forth, the same having no sugar or other 

 foreign matter mixed with it." 



Since the introduction of the process of milk condensing, in- 

 vented and patented by Borden, numerous modifications of the 

 process, as well as entirely different processes, have been in- 

 vented in this country and abroad. The most characteristic 

 among these are: condensation by refrigeration, by centrifugal 

 force, by boiling under atmospheric pressure, by passing hot air 

 over or through milk, etc. Most of these new processes have 

 not proved commercially satisfactory, with the result that the 

 principle of the process, originally invented by Gail Borden, 

 and which consists of condensing the milk in vacuo to a semi- 

 fluid liquid, is still made use of in the manufacture of the great 

 bulk of condensed milk produced, both in this country and 

 abroad. 



While the claim of the patent granted Gail Borden was 

 that of "producing concentrated sw r eet milk by evaporation in 

 vacuo without the admixture of sugar or other foreign mat- 

 ter," records show that Gail Borden manufactured sweetened 

 condensed milk, sold under the famous Eagle Brand label as 

 early as 1856. The first advertisement by Borden of unsweet- 

 ened condensed milk was recorded in Leslie's Weekly, May 

 22, 1858. It reads as follows: 



"Borden's Condensed Milk. Prepared in Litchfield County. 

 Conn., is the only milk ever concentrated without the admix- 

 ture of sugar or some other substance and remaining easily 

 soluble in water. It is simply Fresh Country Milk, from which 

 the water is nearly all evaporated, and nothing added. The 

 Committee of the Academy of Medicine recommend it as 'an 



