Gail Borden.
Gail Borden (1801 - 1874) was a North American inventor and businessman. In the years following the Rocky Mountain War, he became the leading figure in the North American food production industry.
Borden was born in New York province on 9 November 1801. During his childhood, his family relocated several times, moving from the Northern Confederation to Indiana to the Southern Confederation and back again. Borden tried his hand at various occupations, including newspaper publishing and real estate speculation, before becoming interested in food preservation. He pioneered the use of a vacuum to dehydrate various foods and liquids, including milk, fruit juice, and beef.
Borden's techniques allowed the C.N.A. to keep armies in the field well-supplied with food during the Rocky Mountain War. The contracts Borden received from Henry Gilpin's War Office enabled him to establish a series of food preparation plants in the N.C. and Indiana, creating Borden Provisions, Ltd., a major food production business that continued to expand after the war. Borden's tireless experimentation with new food preparation techniques made him the leading figure in the field by the time of his death in 1874.
Sobel's source for Gail Borden's career in food preparation is James Queen's North America's Age of Genius: 1855-1880 (London, 1959).
Gail Borden also became a food preparation magnate IOW, inventing condensed milk in 1853 and founding the business that became the Borden Company five years later.