CONDENSED MILK. 



283 



in them developed a slightly rancid flavour; while they did not 

 completely dissolve. On mixing them with water, a liquid was ob- 

 tained which no doubt possessed the appearance of milk, but was in 

 reality nothing else than a mixture of milk powder in water, since 

 the nitrogenous matter of the milk which had been dried did not 

 dissolve or swell out; that 

 is to say, did not assume 

 the condition in which it 

 was originally present in 

 the milk. This result raised 

 the question of whether it 

 was possible to obtain a 

 substance under the name 

 of milk, by fully drying 

 the milk and by again dis- 

 solving it, and finally de- 

 cided it. 



On the 19th of August, 

 1856, Gail Borden took out 

 a patent in America for the 

 preparation of condensed 

 milk by use of a vacuum 

 pan (fig. 82), without the 

 addition of sugar, or of any 

 other foreign substance. 

 The viscous condensed milk, 

 prepared by him on a com- 

 mercial scale, and packed 

 in open cans, excellently 



fulfilled all the require- Fig. 82. Vacuum Tan for Condensing Milk. 



ments if not kept too long, 



but suffered from the drawback that it could be kept unchanged 

 only for a few weeks. Gail Borden then tried condensed milk with 

 the addition of sugar, packed in air-tight soldered cylindrical metal 

 tins. This method at length solved the problem in a satisfactory 

 manner. As the method of preparing condensed milk at present 

 in practice is essentially the same as that introduced by Gail 

 Borden, his name is with justice regarded as the discoverer of a 

 method of condensing milk. 



In the year 1865, C. A. Page, at that time consul in Zurich, 



