Maybe I should start with this; what exactly* is* evaporated milk? I just used some for the first time, and I was expecting there to be powder in that little can. Needless to say I was a little perplexed upon first shake.
So, what is it and why is it wet?
This site has an explanation of what evaporated milk is.
An even better explanation on Wikipedia.
Continuing Amp’s explanation, if you remove all the water, you end up with powdered milk. So, linguistically, powdered milk could have been (fully) evaporated milk, but that’s not how the terms evolved. Instead, evaporated milk means merely concentrated, whereas fully desiccated milk is powdered milk. BTW, though most powdered milk is non-fat, dry whole milk also is available, most often in health food stores.
Looking at the Wikipedia articles for Evaporated Milk and Condensed Milk…
It’s unclear to me whether this refers to father and son, working on similar projects at around the same time, or refers to the same man.
This site makes clear that it was the same Borden; he was granted the patent in 1856.
"The idea for a portable canned milk product that would not spoil came to Gail Borden during a transatlantic trip on board a ship in 1852. The cows in the hold became too seasick to be milked during the long trip, and an immigrant infant died from lack of milk. Borden realized his goal in 1854. His first condensed milk product lasted three days without souring. He first thought the condensing process of the milk made it more stable but later on realized it was the heating process that killed the bacteria and microorganisms that cause spoilage.
Borden was granted a patent for sweetened condensed milk in 1856. "
Thanks for that.
Note that “Evaporated Milk” and “Sweetened Condensed Milk” are two different things. “Sweetened Condensed Milk” has some of the water evaporated and sugar added. “Evaporated Milk” has more water evaporated and no sugar added.