The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-05-02

The Texan delegate from The Cow
district was not theOrizer, nor a
writer of scientific treatises. His
opinions and his aims, instead of being
abstrusely expressed in essays or in
volumes OF hygienic preachment, crys-
tallized themselves into what may be
fairly called his personal code-the
practical rules for the production of
sound milk and its transportation in
sound condition, which are the law
to this day with the interests that
perpetuate his work. AS to the former
problem-the safeguarding of the pro-
duct itself-it is easy and very inter-
esting to observe how, by some
privilege of intuitive genius, he an
ticipated the conclusions which the
best-trained reasoning and experiment
in the service of the United States
government have reached in the last
half-century with the aid of all the
psychological discoveries of rance
and Germany. A glance at the latest
department of agriculture bulletins
from Washington, comparing them
tracts by the Borden Condensed Milk
atoms old in substance and which real
ly only formulate the principles fol-
lowed by the founder in 1S5S-displays
the tagging efforts of governmental
science to keep pace with the inspired
perceptions of genius But of this |
may say more later on, when the time
comes to speak of my prying into the
contemporary operations of his sue
cessors in the business: just at present
it is in order to notice the more
definitely and demonstrably original
scientific discovery, that of the preser-
walton of pure milk in all its purity
through the trials and chances of
transportation from COW to consumer.
1t seems almost incredible, but is
absolutely certain. that this anticipa-
tor of twentieth. century hygienic
methods knew nothing about germ
theories" as such; it is remarkable
that in practice he applied those
theories more than sixty years ago.
To put his whole plan into a few
words, he simply proposed to give his
customers perfect milk in the same
perfect state in which it came from
the cows udder, and to do this by eX-
Guiding the air from it from the very
first moment of its extraction out of
the natural source. This logically led
him to the vacuum principle of evap-
Grafton. And the method of evapor-
alton led to it's conversion into
portable form. Others had their own
ways of experimenting with so-called
granulated milk. His method was.
briefly, a real condensation by the re-
moval of superfluous water. The
quest for purity led him to the secret
of both purity and portability-at
least so it seems to me, studying the
subject at this distance of time. But
the problem was not easily conquered:
it revealed one obstacle after another
in its practical details. and all these
had to be overcome before the inven-
tor reached the point of beginning his
struggle for a patent. AS an illustra-
ton, he was obliged to raise the SELL
ing price of his condensed milk from
the published, but Improbable, figure
of 25 cents per quart in 1858 to As
cents per quart in the early sixties.
The United States government pur-
chased vast quantities of this pre-
served milk in cans for use by the
union soldiers during the civil war.
Professor S. l.. Goodale, the expert
of the Maine state board of agricul-
ture, who was a personal friend of
Gail Borden, gives an interesting ac-
count of the difficulties which arose
in both Great Britain and the United
States when it was sought to protect
the discovery by legal means. The
objection raised by the commissioners
was not concerned in the least with
the claim to originality; it was ac-
tually based on the argument that
this process was of no particular adj
vantage in the preservation of milk.
At length. however. the last barrier
in the way of success was thrown
down; both the American and the Brit
ish patents were sealed in 1856. and
thereafter. when continued CONNER
cial success proved that the projected
plan was the golden key of the stu
alton. the only difficulty was to keep
unscrupulous and misguided COMPETE
tors from persuading the world that
they, and not Borden had discovered
the way to victory. This last difficulty
has now been settled by the declara-
ton OF the highest authority known
to English-speaking readers, the En-
cyclopaedia Britannica, that the late
Gale Borden was the first to hit upon
the evaporating plan of preserving
milk.
So much as this l had dug up from
the old Leslie's files and other sources