2 
civilized or pastoral peoples of all ages. References to butter 
and cheese are found in the Old Testament.+ It is said of 
Arabs and Tartars that they dried camel’s and mare’s milk by 
pouring it on a flat stone exposed to the sun’s rays, and that 
thus concentrated they used it as a staple food on their desert 
wanderings and expeditions. But the successful attempt to 
concentrate the whole of the milk solids into durable and mar- 
ketable products as we know them in our present day con- 
densed milks and milk powders, is only of recent date in the 
dairy industry. The great difficulty to overcome was the con- 
centration of the solids, i.e., the valuable food elements in the 
milk, without changing them chemically and physically, and to 
preserve them in such a state that they can be used in the 
same way and for the same purposes as fresh milk, or, with 
the addition of water, be brought back to the state in which 
they are contained in fresh milk. Anyone familiar with the 
chemical, physical and physiological properties of milk and 
especiaily with the delicacy and changeability of protein sub- 
stances: contained in it will realize the difficulty. Something 
more will have to be said about this a little later. 
Although Switzerland has become the classic country for 
. the manufacture of condensed milk, the first successful ex- 
periments were made in America.t The claim to be the father 
of the modern condensed milk business must be accorded to 
the American, Gail Borden.* He was awarded patents on his 
process in 1856 by the United States and by England. The 
claim of the patent was for “concentrated sweet milk” , .. “the 
‘ same having no sugar or other matter mixed with it.” But it 
was soon found that sugar must be added to make a product 
of undoubted keeping qualities, and as early as 1856 sweet- 
+Book of Genesis, XVIII, 8: “And he took butter and milk and the 
calf he had dressed and set it before them.” 
Book of Job, X, 10: “Hast thou not poured me out like milk and 
curdled me like cheese?” (Cited by O. F. Hunziker.) 
{The recognition of the necessity of evaporating the milk under 
vacuum and the first experiments are credited to a Professor Horsford. 
His assistant, Dalton, founded a factory in 1851, which, however, was 
not successful. 
*He’ applied for a patent in 1853. In his application he does not 
claim his invention to be “concentrating milk in a vacuum pan for such 
a purpose,” but says “my object being to exclude the air from the begin- 
ning of the process to the end, to prevent incipient decomposition.” 
