18 History AND DEVELOPMENT 
same time as the factory system of the butter and cheese indus- 
try; although, for many years before the invention of a suc- 
cessful process of condensing milk, methods had been sought 
to preserve milk. 
The American, Gail Borden, the inventor of the manufac- 
ture of condensed milk, is said to have experimented some ten 
years before he finally decided that a semi-fluid state, produced 
Fig. 2. Gail Borden 
by evaporation in vacuo, was the best form of preservation. 
He first apphed for a patent in 1853, but it was not until three 
years later that the Patent Office appreciated the originality 
and value of his claim sufficiently to grant him a patent. In 
August, 1856, he was awarded a patent on his process, both by 
the United States and by England. 
In his application Mr. Bordon says:! 
“Tam aware that sugar, and various extracts, have been and 
1“A Brief Sketch of Gail Borden,” by S. L. Goodale, Secretary Maine State 
Board of Agriculture, 1872.—Courtesy of Borden’s Condensed Milk Company. 
