Borden, Gail

Borden, Gail

(1801–74) surveyor, inventor; born in Norwich, N.Y. In 1822 he surveyed land in Mississippi, then joined his family at Stephen Austin's colony in Texas where he worked as the official surveyor. During the Texas war for independence from Mexico, he and his brother published the area's only newspaper; he also drew up the first topographical map of the republic and laid out the city of Galveston. Motivated by the problems of obtaining food on the frontier, in 1851 he invented a meat biscuit (pemmican), the first of his food experiments. In 1853 he traveled to New Lebanon, N.Y., to use the Shaker colony laboratory for experiments to condense milk. His patent for "a process of evaporating milk in a vacuum" was granted in 1856. In 1861 a "condensing" factory in Wassaic, N.Y., began production and the milk was used by Union soldiers. He returned to Texas to continue his experiments and was awarded a patent for concentrating juices in 1862.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.