Gail Borden was an American surveyor, publisher, and inventor. He was agent for the Galveston City Company, a corporation owning large areas of land on which the city was built, from 1839 to 1851.
Background
Gail Borden was born on November 9, 1801, in Norwich, New York, United States, the eldest son of Gail and Philadelphia (Wheeler) Borden. He was of the seventh generation descended from Richard Borden who settled at Pocasset (now Portsmouth), Rhode Island, in 1638. His mother was the great-great-granddaughter of Roger Williams. His youth was that of a farmer's son of the times. When he was fourteen his parents moved to what is now Covington, Kentucky, and within a year, they moved again, into the Territory of Indiana.
Education
Borden obtained his only schooling, totaling one and one-half years, in New London, Indiana. His father additionaly taught him surveying.
Career
Almost as soon as Gail Borden stopped being a pupil he began teaching school and from nineteen to twenty-one taught in the backwoods schools of the territory. Because of poor health he left home in 1822 and proceeded further south, settling shortly thereafter in Amite County, Mississippi. Here he taught school and was county and United States deputy surveyor for six or seven years, after which he went with his bride of less than a year to join his parents in Stephen A. Austin's colony in Texas. Borden's first employment here was farming and stock raising. He was subsequently appointed by Gen. Austin to superintend the official surveys of the colonies. He represented his district at the convention held in 1833 at San Felipe to seek separation from Mexico and during the war he and his brother published the only newspaper issued in the territory. When the republic was founded Borden compiled the first topographical map and made the surveys for and laid out the city of Galveston, and was made collector of customs there.
At an age when many men are desirous of reducing the number of their activities, Borden, who for fifty years had led the varied and rugged life of a pioneer, began the most important work of his life. His greatest pleasure lay in doing something for his fellow-man and it was this characteristic that led to his new and wholly different work. One of the greatest hardships of the pioneer was that of securing and carrying sufficient food on his migrations, and Borden set to work with the fixed idea of preparing food in concentrated form. He first developed a meat biscuit. Its value was quickly recognized, and Borden invested all that he had in a plant for its manufacture. A strong and influential competition of Army food contractors, however, resulted in the failure of the undertaking and Borden lost everything. He had an exhibit of his meat biscuit at the London Fair in 1851 and received "the great council medal. "
It is said that on his way back from Europe Borden was impressed by the plight of the immigrant children on board ship because of the impossibility of giving them wholesome milk. So, when his meat biscuits failed he thought of concentrating milk. He left Texas and went north to New Lebanon, New York, where he had friends in the Shaker Colony. He began at once experimenting in their laboratory and condensing milk, using, particularly, a vacuum pan of the type used in making sugar. He applied for a patent in May 1853 "on a process of evaporating milk in vacuum. " For three years the process was questioned by the Patent Office until Borden's contention that the important function of the vacuum was to protect the milk from air and to keep it clean while it was being condensed was scientifically proven. On August 19, 1856, Borden received Patent No. 15, 553 for "the concentration of milk. "
Borden endeavored to go into production immediately after the issuance of his patent but until he met Jeremiah Milbank, he failed to secure enough money to build a plant. Manufacture was started in 1858 and the first big condensary was opened in 1861 at Wassaic, New York. But for the Civil War it might have taken years to introduce this new product. It was found, however, to be a very valuable food for soldiers, nourishing and easily carried, and the public learned from the soldiers. After the business was established on a firm basis Borden returned to Texas and in the town of Borden he turned his attention to the concentration of other foods, including fruit juices, tea, coffee, and cocoa. On July 22, 1862, the Patent Office granted him Patent No. 35, 919, "for concentrating cider and other juices and fruits. " He continued his experimental work thereafter until the end of his life. He died at his home in Texas at the age of seventy-three.
Achievements
Membership
Borden was an honorary member of the London Society of Arts.
Connections
Borden's first wife was Penelope Mercer of Amite County, Miss. , whom he married in 1828. She was the mother of all his children and died in 1844. He later married Mrs. A. F. Stearns, and sometime after her death he married in 1860 Mrs. Emeline Eunice (Eno) Church.