BORDEN, Gail, American inventor: b. Norwich, N. Y., 6 Nov. 1801; d. Bordon, Tex., 11 Jan. 1874. His parents were of New Eng land descent and in 1814 they emigrated from New York, settling in Covington, Ky., and later in Madison, then in the Territory of Indiana. In 1822, finding his health impaired, he removed to Mississippi, where he taught and also filled the positions of county surveyor and United States deputy surveyor. In 1829 he went to Texas. He was elected delegate to the con vention that, in 1833, petitioned the Mexican government for separation, and he was also in charge of the official surveys of the colony, compiling the first topographical map of Texas. The land office at San Felipe was under his charge up to the time of the Mexican invasion. In 1835, with his brother, Thomas H., he estab lished the Telegraph and Texas Land Register at San Felipe, which was afterward transferred to Houston, and was the first and only news paper published in Texas during the war for the independence of that colony. After the establishment of the republic of Texas he was appointed by President Houston first collector of the port of Galveston. That city in 1837 had not been laid out and its first surveys were made by him. From 1839 to 1857 he was agent of the Galveston City Company, a corporation owning several thousand acres of land on which the city is now built. About 1849 his atten tion was drawn to the need of more suitable supplies for emigrants crossing the plains, and after some experimenting he produced the which Dr. Kane carried with
him on his Arctic expedition. The bis cuit," the most simple, economical and efficient form of portable concentrated food, was in vented by him. This gained for him a medal at the London World's Fair of 1851 and he was elected an honorary member of the London Society of Arts. Meeting with opposition from the army contractors, he was unsuccessful in the manufacture of his biscuit and lost his en tire means. He then removed to the North and turned his attention to the preservation of milk, and in 1853 applied for a patent for ((produc ing concentrated sweet milk by evaporation in vacuo, the same having no sugar or other foreign matter mixed with its but failed of securing it until 1856. Later, the New York Condensed Milk Company was formed and works were established at Brewster's Station, N. Y., and at Elgin, Ill. During the Civil War his condensed milk was extensively used in the army and navy. Condensed meat juices were then experimented upon and he produced an extract of beef of superior quality, which at first he made in Elgin but later at Borden, Tex. Later he produced excellent prepara tions of condensed coffee, cocoa and tea, and in 1862 patented a process by means of which fruit-juices, such as apples, currants and grapes, could be reduced to one-seventh of their orig inal bulk. Borden amassed a great fortune from his patents. _