Better Living Radio Theatre 53xxxx 04 Milk For Millions

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Better Living Radio Theatre 53xxxx 04 - Milk For Millions"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Harold's Old Time Radio
• Host/Author: Harolds Old Time Radio
• Episode: Better Living Radio Theatre 53xxxx 04 - Milk For Millions
• Release Date: June 14, 2025
• Description: Reliving the Golden Age of Radio, this episode brings listeners back to a time when families gathered around the radio to enjoy iconic shows like The Shadow, Abbott & Costello, and Dragnet. This particular episode, "Milk For Millions," delves into the pioneering efforts in America's dairy industry.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode begins with a public service announcement highlighting the dangers of flavored tobacco among teens, emphasizing the need for legislative action. This segment, while important, serves as a setup for the transition into the main content of the episode.

Notable Quote:

Unknown Teen Advocate [00:00]: "Use of flavored tobacco by teens is a crisis. Tobacco companies use flavors like cotton candy, watermelon ice, and cool mint to hook kids like me. They seem harmless, but they aren't."

Following the PSA, Wendell Niles, the narrator, introduces the episode, setting the stage for a historical drama focused on Gail Borden, a key figure in America's dairy industry.

Notable Quote:

Wendell Niles [00:28]: "The electric Company's public information program brings you your Better Living Radio Theater in its salute to the American home, its family and its way of life in this bright American future."

2. Gail Borden: A Pioneer of Condensed Milk

The story centers on Gail Borden, born in Norwich, New York, in 1801. His diverse career as a teacher, surveyor, and later a settler during the California Gold Rush sets the backdrop for his eventual contribution to the dairy industry.

Notable Quote:

Wendell Niles [03:29]: "Man's hand and brain have combined to bring mankind its great inventions for better living."

3. The Struggle to Develop Non-Moldable Biscuits

In a critical scene set on August 19, 1856, Gail Borden confronts a young advocate, Jared Potter, regarding the challenges of creating durable food supplies for westward travelers. Borden expresses frustration over his failed attempts to create mold-resistant biscuits.

Notable Quotes:

Gail Borden [04:01]: "Borden. That's my name, sir."

Gail Borden [04:23]: "It'd be better if you stayed here."

This dialogue underscores the dire need for reliable food sources during the expansion westward, highlighting the human cost of failed innovations.

4. The Breakthrough: Utilizing the Vacuum Pan

Borden's persistence leads him to the Shaker colony in New Lebanon, New York, where he observes the use of a vacuum pan by Shaker women preparing food. Inspired by this device, he hypothesizes that it could be adapted to condense milk without contamination from air.

Notable Quote:

Gail Borden [08:29]: "I am seriously considering working on a brand new idea here."

With permission to use the Shaker's vacuum pan, Borden conducts experiments that eventually lead to a significant breakthrough in milk preservation.

5. Overcoming Patent Obstacles

Borden faces repeated rejections from the U.S. Patent Office, with officials challenging the novelty of his method. Undeterred, he collaborates with Jared Potter and Dr. John Curie to rigorously test and document his process, ultimately proving the superiority of condensing milk in a vacuum.

Notable Exchanges:

Dr. Delaney [10:03]: "We do not find sufficient novelty in the applicant's method."

Gail Borden [10:27]: "We must prove that my method is different and better."

This collaboration culminates in the successful patenting of his condensed milk process, marking a pivotal moment for the dairy industry.

6. The Impact of Condensed Milk

Wendell Niles narrates the significant implications of Borden's invention, emphasizing its role in providing safe milk for long voyages and urban populations lacking access to fresh milk. The introduction of condensed milk not only revolutionizes food preservation but also supports the nation's westward expansion and urban growth.

Notable Quote:

Wendell Niles [10:52]: "Now the baby, the weary traveler, could have his safe milk no matter where he was, no matter how far removed from farm and herd."

7. Interview with Mr. Theodore G. Montague

The episode concludes with an interview featuring Mr. Theodore G. Montague, President of the Borden Company. He acknowledges the critical role of electric power and modern technology in advancing the dairy industry, ensuring high-quality products at lower costs, and continuing to improve standards of living.

Notable Quote:

Theodore G. Montague [12:58]: "Electric power and good wholesome dairy products serving millions of Americans can be counted upon to continue improving our standards of living."

8. Closing Remarks

Wendell Niles wraps up the episode, reinforcing the theme of innovation and better living, and previews future broadcasts in the series.

Notable Quote:

Wendell Niles [13:42]: "Your Better Living Radio Theater has brought you Milk for Millions, the fourth in a series of broadcasts at this time presented by this station and the Electric Company's public information program."

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Conclusion

"Milk For Millions" effectively dramatizes the challenges and triumphs of Gail Borden in developing condensed milk, highlighting the intersection of innovation, perseverance, and societal needs. The episode not only educates listeners about a pivotal invention in the dairy industry but also underscores the broader impact of technological advancements on American life.

Additional Content: The episode bookends with a repeated PSA about flavored tobacco's dangers to teens and a brief, unrelated advertisement for Wayfair's home style tips. These segments are excluded from the main summary as per the user's instructions to focus solely on the content-rich sections.

Notable Quote from PSA:

Unknown Teen Advocate [14:50]: "Use of flavored tobacco by teens is a crisis..."

Notable Quote from Advertisement:

Nicole Byer [15:21]: "Wayfair's got style tips for every home."

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the "Milk For Millions" episode, providing listeners with a clear understanding of the key discussions, insights, and conclusions without exposing them to non-content sections like advertisements and PSAs.

Transcript

[Unknown Teen Advocate]

Use of flavored tobacco by teens is a crisis. Tobacco companies use flavors like cotton candy, watermelon ice and cool mint to hook kids like me. They seem harmless, but they are. Addiction to nicotine sets us up for a lifetime of health problems. Organ legislators can do something about it. Passing Senate Bill 702A will keep flavored tobacco away from kids. But there are just a few short weeks left for lawmakers to act. Take action to protect kids like me@ flavorshookoregonkids.org paid for by the Campaign for.

[Wendell Niles]

Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund. The electric Company's public information program brings you your Better Living Radio Theater in its salute to the American home, its family and its way of life in this bright American future. The tubes in your radio. The power behind this station which brings you this program. The night light at your child's bedside. The giant motors that drive the machines to mold our steel and power your production lines. The current that pops your family, toaster foods, aircraft, railroads, automobiles and ships. Electricity always at hand, day or night, with its economy for lower cost to you. The rising efficiency through its own research, with its growth to match the nation's needs at all times, electricity is at work to bring you better living. This is your narrator, Wendell Niles. Now we bring you a story entitled Milk for Millions, a dramatic story of one of the great pioneers of America's dairy industry. This is the fourth in a series of broadcasts at this time to show you how Americans in a free nation have worked to bring you better living today. In fact, the highest standard of living in the world. Later, you will hear from today's guest, Mr. Theodore G. Montague, President of the Borden Company. And now, your Better Living Radio Theater presents today's story. Milk for millions. Washington, D.C. august 19, 1856. To Robert McFarland, editor, Scientific American. Our long battle is at an end. U.S. patent Office today awarded me American patent on my process condensing milk. My gratitude to you and Dr. John Curie for your tireless aid in helping me prove condensing in vacuo is unequaled and that evaporating milk must not be allowed to contact air. Unquote sign Gail Borden. Man's hand and brain have combined to bring mankind its great inventions for better living. But to bring better living to the millions in America, it is necessary that the products of our great farms and factories be produced with reasonable cost and be distributed as widely as possible so that the greatest number may receive the greatest good from these inventions. Without electric power readily available in all parts of the Nation without power tools and electric motors to do the work of ten, a hundred, a thousand men, our better living of today would be impossible. This is the story of Gail Borden, who worked to bring better living to Americans. This pioneer of dairy farming was born in upstate New York in 1801 in Norwich. And later he went to Indiana, where he taught school, to Mississippi, where he was a surveyor. And then he went on to Texas, where he settled down for a while until the California gold rush began and thousands of people began pouring through Texas near where he lived.

[Jared Potter]

Oh. Oh. Oh, blast it. I say there. I say, there be a name.

[Gail Borden]

Borden. That's my name, sir.

[Jared Potter]

Now, my name's Jared Potter. I'm a friend of Lieutenant Slocum's.

[Gail Borden]

Oh, well, I'm glad to know you.

[Jared Potter]

Well, in fact, I used to be an army contractor, and that's how I knew the lieutenant. He's been telling me some interesting stories about you.

[Gail Borden]

Has he?

[Jared Potter]

You can see we've got a baby there in Nellie's arms.

[Gail Borden]

Not more than three months, I'd say.

[Jared Potter]

Oh, just about. And there's a couple of other youngins back in the Conestoga wagon there. We're heading west, all of us.

[Gail Borden]

It'd be better if you stayed here.

[Jared Potter]

Lieutenant Slocum told us you'd say that.

[Gail Borden]

I mean it. How long do you think that baby will live on the trail?

[Jared Potter]

Oh, Nellie's healthy. She's nursed all the others. Strapping children they are, too.

[Gail Borden]

She hasn't nursed them on the trail west. How long will she live herself? What do you mean, Nelly?

[Nellie Potter]

I left young Jim holding the reins. Tell me, sir, don't you think I'm strong enough to stand the trail?

[Gail Borden]

You look strong enough now, Mrs. Potter. But four weeks from now. Look, day after day, I watch families like yours set forth on the trail to the gold fields of California. I've never been there myself, but I'm a surveyor. I've seen a lot of the country go past through. I've seen the red sands and the sawtooth peaks of the desert. I've seen the bones of gold rushes along the way.

[Jared Potter]

There's plenty of game farther west.

[Gail Borden]

Not in the desert. I can believe any story, no matter how horrible, about starvation on the trail.

[Nellie Potter]

Dear you, Doc. No one's ever reached California.

[Gail Borden]

Very few, ma' am, compared to those who started out. I suppose this is why Lieutenant Slocum sent you to me. He says I'm the pioneer's prophet of doom.

[Nellie Potter]

Lieutenant Slocum sent us for something else. It's the reason why we came to you.

[Gail Borden]

You mean the meat biscuit? I'm sorry. When I last saw Lieutenant Slocum, I thought I was on the right track. I'd worked a month, night after night, chopping steer beef and grinding cornmeal into a wet mash and then drying it, eating some of each new batch. I thought I was about to find what I wanted. But it molded. It still turns moldy. Until I can find something that doesn't mold, a mixture that'll last for months on the trail, I. I don't dare give any of my mashes to anyone.

[Wendell Niles]

A short time after our first scene, our pioneer struck upon using flour in his Biscuits. By early 1850, his combination of beef extract and flour began to interest army contractors. He. He manufactured several canisters for Dr. Elisha Kane to take on his first Arctic expedition. A patent was issued for the invention in February 1850. And after organizing a partnership to market the biscuits and building a factory, he went to London to show the English his new development in the field of food. On his return journey, Borden was on deck one evening when a man whom he had met on his first day of the voyage strolled to the rail beside him.

[Gail Borden]

Whoa. Dr. Delaney. I've missed seeing you these past few days.

[Dr. Delaney]

She's busy. I've been, sir, very busy.

[Gail Borden]

Busy? I thought this was a pleasure trip for you and your wife.

[Dr. Delaney]

Have you not heard about the cows on shipboard, sir?

[Gail Borden]

The cows, yes. I've heard the rough passage has made them seasick. But I didn't know that you were a veterinarian.

[Dr. Delaney]

That I'm not. But as the results of the cows being sick have made me busy. The children aboard, sir. More particularly the wee babies whom the cow's milk was supposed to have nourished. They're dying, sir.

[Gail Borden]

Oh, you can't mean it.

[Dr. Delaney]

Two dead today. They fear for another before morning.

[Gail Borden]

There's no hope of getting any milk.

[Dr. Delaney]

For these babies in mid Atlantic.

[Gail Borden]

Oh, I. I mean, none of the cows is able to give even a quart or two of milk.

[Dr. Delaney]

I'm a doctor. I'm used to death, sir. But it seems something could be done to keep milk fresh for long voyages like this.

[Gail Borden]

It would be worth working for. It would be worth working for, Doctor.

[Wendell Niles]

On his return to this country, our pioneer's thoughts were for a short while diverted by the sudden, surprising bankruptcy of his meat and flour biscuit factory. In business, in despair, he sought shelter in New Lebanon, New York, with friends in the Shaker colony there. It was a stroke of Good fortune for the dairy industry and mankind together. For a while there, he noticed that the Shaker women in Preparing Flute for Canning were using a device like a huge kettle drum that caught his fancy.

[Gail Borden]

Good morning, Sister. Tis a pleasant day.

[Shaker Woman]

Aye, sir. I hope he is in good spirits today.

[Gail Borden]

The best I've been in since coming. Sister, is that not a vacuum pan you're using on the fire?

[Shaker Woman]

It is, sir. How did you know?

[Gail Borden]

I. I'm an inventor of sorts. Sometimes happily, sometimes not.

[Shaker Woman]

Someday, I pray thee will invent something which will bring thee good fortune.

[Gail Borden]

You know, I am seriously considering working on a brand new idea here on.

[Shaker Woman]

A new way to preserve fruit. Thou art staring so at my vacuum pan.

[Gail Borden]

Well, the fact of the matter is I'm wondering if I could use that type of vacuum pan to condense milk.

[Shaker Woman]

Condensed milk. I do not understand, Sister.

[Gail Borden]

When I returned from Europe recently, several small babies died aboard ship because they could not get fresh milk. I would very much like to discover a way to keep milk fresh for everyone on long voyages. For all those in the cities who can't obtain fresh milk day by day.

[Shaker Woman]

It would be a great blessing, sir.

[Gail Borden]

Sister, tell me, do you think I could obtain permission to use one of those pans for my experiments? Is the first thing which has given me hope in the while I've been considering this problem.

[Wendell Niles]

He received the permission he requested and within a few months. This vacuum pan, which permitted liquids to boil at low temperature, gave him high hopes in the experiments for condensing milk. He ordered a specially designed pan for himself. And soon he was able to apply to the United States Patent Office for a patent on his method. This was in 1853.

[Dr. Delaney]

We do not find sufficient novelty in the applicant's method. Other inventors have used a vacuum pan to condense milk.

[Wendell Niles]

His attorney claimed that such previous claims were theoretical. And again he made a claim for a patent. This time.

[Dr. Delaney]

The applicant has failed to prove that condensing milk in vacuo contributes anything to previous modes of condensation.

[Wendell Niles]

Undiscouraged, the inventor continued his work. And a third time his application was rejected. But this time by Joe.

[Jared Potter]

You've had a hard time, Borden. But you say there is some hope this time.

[Gail Borden]

Yes, Mr. McFarlane. That's why I've sent for you. I need your help.

[Jared Potter]

Well, sir, anything that I can do, anything my magazine, the Scientific American, can do, will do. You know I'm a booster of your condensed milk. I used it myself.

[Gail Borden]

I think the patent commissioners have given me an opening at the end of their Last rejection they added about me. If. If he can prove that milk taken fresh from the cow and evaporated in the open air would not answer substantially the same purpose as when evaporated in vacuo, I would certainly grant him the patent he is asking.

[Jared Potter]

That's a steep order he's given us. You realize what he's asking?

[Gail Borden]

I do. We must study every known method of condensing milk and use those methods. We must prove that my method is different and better.

[Jared Potter]

Well, we are going to get writers cramped just recording our results.

[Gail Borden]

Friend McFarlane, it cheers me greatly to hear you say we. Fortunately, you and I are not alone, sir. Dr. John Curie is going to help us.

[Jared Potter]

Curie? Well, a splendid man. One of New York's best chemists. Well, when do we begin? At once.

[Wendell Niles]

Curie, McFarland and Borden not only studied every known method of condensing milk, they actually condensed milk by each method and tabulated the results. They drew charts, they prepared affidavits. And as they progressed, the data shaped up toward one point. That condensing milk in vacuo was unequaled in condensing milk. It must not be allowed to contact air. This time, when he faced the patent commission, he was soon able to send the telegram with which we began his story today. It was a great day for the dairy industry of the world. A great day for humanity. Now the baby, the weary traveler, could have his safe milk no matter where he was, no matter how far removed from farm and herd. It was a heartwarming gift to the millions who would travel westward, settling this nation. Now, today's guest of Better Living Radio Theater, Mr. Theodore G. Montagu, president of the Borden Company.

[Theodore G. Montague]

I am happy to take part in this nationwide tribute to the role played by electric power and related industries in creating an even better America. We in the dairy industry fully appreciate the value of electricity. We know that without this great source of power we could not assure foods of present high quality or produce them at their present low cost. Electricity, along with other modern tools, has of course, revolutionized the lives of dairymen. But these modern miracles have done more than this. They have helped the whole dairy industry achieve its goals. They have also aided the research and enterprise through which we hope to improve even further the quality of our foods and service to our customers. Electric power and good wholesome dairy products serving millions of Americans can be counted upon to continue improving our standards of living. Thank you.

[Wendell Niles]

Thank you, Mr. Montague, for joining us in this salute to Better Living. You have been listening to Mr. Theodore G. Montagu, President of the Borden Company. Your better living Radio Theater has brought you Milk for Millions, the fourth in a series of broadcasts at this time presented by this station and the Electric Company's public information program. Now, this is your narrator, Wendell Niles, inviting you to be with us again at the same time next week, when Better Living will present another program in this series.

[Unknown Teen Advocate]

Use of flavored tobacco by teens is a crisis Tobacco companies use flavors like cotton candy, watermelon ice and cool mint to hook kids like me. They seem harmless, but they aren't. Addiction to nicotine sets us up for a lifetime of health problems. Oregon legislators can do something about it. Passing Senate Bill 702A will keep flavored tobacco away from kids. But there are just a few short weeks left for lawmakers to act. Take action to protect kids like me@v flavors hookoreegoids.org paid for by the Campaign.

[Wendell Niles]

For Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund.

[Nicole Byer]

We interrupt this program to bring you an important Wayfair message. Wayfair's got style tips for every home. This is Nicole Byer helping you make those rooms flyer Today's style Tip when it comes to making a statement, treat bold patterns like neutrals. Go wild like an untamed animal. Print area rug under a rustic farmhouse table. From wayfair.com Ooh. Fierce. This has been your Wayfair style tip to keep those interiors superior.

[Jared Potter]

Wayfair Every style, Every home.