Nils Gustaf Daldn was born on November 30, 1869 at Sternstorp in the District of Skaraborg, the third of five brothers and sisters. His parents were the farmer Anders Johansson and his wife Lovisa Dahlen, which latter name all the brothers and sisters adopted. As a child Gustaf Dakn showed a natural gift for mechanics. In view of the natural gifts shown by young Dalen it was decided that he should become a farmer like his father. As a consequence he was sent after his school days to a School of Agriculture, where he studied specially dairy farming. Later on, when he managed the dairy of the family estate, he observed that the milk delivered by different farmers varied in respect of its content of fat. This should be the basis for the price of the milk, he reasoned, and contrived a device that would give an indication of the content of fat. This apparatus functioned satisfactorily and he decided to show it to Mr. Gustaf de Laval, the most prominent dairy technical expert in Sweden. He was Informed by Mr. De Laval that the latter had himself only a short time before applied for a patent for an almost identical apparatus, the so-called butyrometer.
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