Diemazz

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2008)

Norbert Rillieux (March 17, 1806 – October 8, 1894), an American inventor and engineer, is most noted for his invention of the multiple-effect evaporator, an energy-efficient means of evaporating water. This invention was an important development in the growth of the sugar industry. Rillieux was a cousin of the painter Edgar Degas.

Family

Rillieux was born into an aristocratic Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the son of Vincent Rillieux, a white plantation owner, engineer and inventor, and his placée, Constance Vivant, a Free Person of Color. Norbert was the eldest of seven children. His siblings were: Barthélémy, Edmond, Marie Eugénie, Louis, Marie Éloïse, and Cécile Virginie. Norbert's aunt on his father's side, Marie Céleste Rillieux, was the grandmother of painter Edgar Degas. His aunt on his mother's side, Eulalie Vivant, was the mother of Bernard Soulie, one of the wealthiest Gens de Couleur Libre in Louisiana.

Early life

As a Creole, Norbert had access to education and privileges not available to lower-status blacks or slaves. Baptized Roman Catholic, Rillieux received his early education at private Catholic schools before, in the early 1820s, traveling to Paris, France to attend the famous Parisian school, École Centrale. While at École Centrale, Norbert studied physics, mechanics, and engineering. He became an expert in steam engines and published several papers about the use of steam to work devices, early explorations into the technology he would later implement in his evaporator. At 24, Rillieux became the youngest teacher at École Centrale, instructing in applied mechanics. He was also a competent blacksmith, an expert machinist and fluent in French.

Sugar refining

In the early part of the 1800s, the process for sugar refinement was slow, expensive, and inefficient. First, the sugarcane juice was pressed and extracted from the cane before workers used the "Jamaica Train" method of forming sugar from the juice. The workers, who were mostly slaves, poured the sugarcane juice into the largest kettle, where it was left until most of the water evaporated. Then they continued to pour the resultant thick liquid into smaller and smaller pots as the liquid continued to thicken. Each time the liquid was poured, some of the sugar was lost. A considerable amount of sugar was also burned because it was difficult to monitor and maintain appropriate heat levels for the pots. The process was also dangerous for the workers, who had routinely to transfer the hot liquid.

While in France, Rillieux started researching ways to improve the process of sugar refining. Meanwhile, back in Louisiana, Rillieux's brother, Edmond Rillieux, a builder, along with their cousin, Norbert Soulie, an architect, began working with Edmund Forstall to build a new Louisiana Sugar Refinery. In 1833, Forstall, having heard about Rillieux's research into sugar refining, offered him the position of Head Engineer at the not-yet-completed sugar refinery. Rillieux accepted the offer and returned to Louisiana to take up his new position, but the sugar refinery was never built due to disagreements between the principals, mainly Edmond Rillieux, his father, Vincent, and Edmund Forstall. These disagreements created long-term resentments between the Rillieux family and Edmund Forstall.

In spite of the failure of that collaboration, Rillieux remained focused on improving the sugar refining process, developing his machine between 1834 and 1843, when he patented it. The multiple-effect evaporation system that he devised addressed both the spillage that resulted from transfer and the uneven application of heat, as well as making the process safer for workers. The system utilizes a vacuum chamber or a container with reduced air to lower the boiling point of the liquids. Inside this are stacked several pans to contain the sugarcane juice. As the bottom pans heat, they release steam to transfer heat to the pans above. The heat is more easily controlled than in the Jamaican Jerk method, because one source is needed, at a lower temperature, for multiple pans of sugarcane juice. This prevents the sugar from being burned and discolored. As the workers do not have to transfer the liquid, sugarcane is not spilled and they are at a reduced risk for burns.

Several years after patenting the system, Rillieux successfully installed it at Theodore Packwood's Myrtle Grove plantation. Not long after this, Rillieux's new system was installed at Bellechasse, a plantation owned by Packwood's business partner, Judah P Benjamin. Benjamin and Rillieux became quite good friends, possibly due to their similar social situation; they were both considered outsiders in Louisiana's very class-conscious society.

After these successes, Rillieux managed to convince 13 Louisiana sugar factories to use his invention. By 1849, Merrick & Towne in Philadelphia were offering sugar makers a choice of three different multiple-effect evaporation systems. They were able to select machines capable of making 6000, 12000, or 18000 pounds of sugar per day. The evaporators were so efficient that the sugar makers were able to cover the costs of the new machine with the huge profits from the sugar produced with Rillieux's system.

Other Work

Rillieux also turned his engineer skills to dealing with a Yellow Fever outbreak in New Orleans in the 1850s. Rillieux presented a plan to the city that would eliminate the moist breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carried the disease by addressing problems in the city's sewer system and drying swamplands in the area. The plan was blocked by Edmund Forstall, a state legislator at the time. Due the constraints and racism that he encountered in Louisiana, Rillieux returned to France in the late 1850s. Several years later, the ongoing Yellow Fever outbreak in New Orleans was addressed by white engineers using a method extremely similar to what Rillieux had proposed.

In Paris, Rillieux became interested in Egyptology and hieroglyphics, which he studied with the family of Jean-François Champollion. He spent the next decade working at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Later life

In 1881, at the age of 75, Rillieux made one last foray into sugar evaporation, devising a way to use his multiple effect evaporation system to extract sugar from sugar beets. The process for which he filed patent was far more fuel-efficient than that currently in use in the beet sugar factories in France. Prior to Rillieux's invention, two engineers developed a vacuum pan and electric coils to improve the process of making sugar, but this was unsuccessful due to the use of steam at wrong locations in the machine. Rillieux's process fixed the errors in the previous process, but Rillieux lost the rights to the patent he had filed.

Norbert Rillieux died in poverty on October 8, 1894 at the age of 88. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His wife, Emily Cuckow, died in 1912 and is buried beside him.

References

• University of Michigan. (1993). Brodie, James M., Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators (pp 42-44)
• MIT Press. (2005). Pursell, Carl W., A Hammer in Their Hands: A Documentary History of Technology and the African-American Experience (pp 59-70)
• University of California (1999). Benfrey, Christopher., Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable

External links

• Profile of Norbert Rillieux - The Black Inventor Online Museum
• Norbert Rillieux - MSN Encarta

Site Map: RSS 2.0

Recent Searches: Norbert Rillieux
Chao Kuang Piu High tech Development Fund
File:Ni Kuang 2007 jpg
Duan and Ding's endowment to Zhejiang University
Melt!
Pao Yu Kong and Pao Zhao Long Scholarship for Chinese Students Studying Abroad
American Zhu Kezhen Education Foundation
Caravel
Capricornus
Non recognized nations

Related Pages: