Томас Велч: Пастерлеу арқылы жүзім шырынының жаңа өндірісінің негізін қалаушы

Methodist minister, dentist and businessman

Thomas Bramwell Welch (December 31, 1825 – December 29, 1903) was a British–American Methodist minister and dentist. He pioneered the use of pasteurization as a means of preventing the fermentation of grape juice. He persuaded local churches to adopt this non alcoholic wine substitute for use in Holy Communion, calling it "Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine". The company he founded is now called Welch's.

Welch was born in Glastonbury, England on December 31, 1825. He moved to the United States when his father emigrated in 1834. He attended public schools in Watertown, New York.

At age 17, Thomas Welch joined the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion, founded the same year (1843). From its beginning, the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion strongly opposed the "manufacturing, buying, selling, or using intoxicating liquors", and "slaveholding, buying, or selling" of slaves. With the first edition of their Discipline, the Wesleyan Methodists expressly required for the Lord's Supper (Communion) that "unfermented wine only should be used at the sacrament." This requirement was about 25 years before Welch used pasteurization. So it is clearly evident that pasteurization was not the only method used to prepare it unfermented. There were traditional methods to prepare unfermented wine (juice) for use at any time during the year, e. g. to reconstitute concentrated grape juice, or to boil raisins, or to add preservatives that prevent juice from fermenting and souring. Throughout his late teens, Welch was active in the Underground Railroad that transported escaped slaves from the south into Canada. By age 19, he graduated from Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary, and became an ordained Wesleyan Methodist minister. In 1865, Welch relocated to Vineland, New Jersey, where a sister already resided, and became a member of Vineland Methodist Episcopal Church, where he served as a communion steward. Then in 1869, Welch invented a method of pasteurizing grape juice so that fermentation was stopped, and the drink was non alcoholic. He persuaded local churches to adopt this non alcoholic wine for communion services, calling it "Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine."

He continued to practice dentistry in Vineland until 1880 and "enjoyed a very successful and lucrative practice through the entire time." However, Thomas Welch himself "never received a penny in return for his investment." After the death of his first wife, Thomas Welch married Miss Victoria C. Sherbume in 1895. On December 29, 1903, Thomas Welch died in Vineland, New Jersey. He was buried in its Siloam Cemetery.