Norbert Rillieux

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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.

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[edit] Family

Norbert 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: Bartholomew, Edmond, Maria Eugenia, Louis, Maria Eloisa, and Cecilia Virginie. Norbert's aunt on his father's side, Marie Celeste 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.

[edit] Early Life

As a Free Person of Color, Norbert had access to education and privileges not available to lower-status blacks or slaves. He was baptized in a New Orleans Catholic church and attended private Catholic schools in New Orleans. In the early 1820s, Norbert's father sent him to Paris, France, where he attended 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. These papers became the foundation for the device he invented for better sugar production. At 24, Norbert Rillieux became the youngest teacher at École Centrale. He taught applied mechanics. He was also a competent blacksmith, an expert machinist and fluent in French.

[edit] 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. Workers then used a method called the “Jamaica Train” to turn sugarcane juice into sugar. The workers, who were mostly slaves, poured the sugarcane juice into the largest kettle, where it was left there 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 pot had its own heat source and controlling the flames wasn't easy. As a result, most of sugar was burned and ended up being dark brown in color. This process was also inefficient because during each pouring of the liquid, some of the sugar was lost.

While in France, Norbert Rillieux started researching ways to improve the process of sugar refining. Meanwhile, back in Louisiana, Norbert's brother, Edmond, 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 Norbert Rillieux's research into sugar refining, offered him the position of Head Engineer at the not-yet-completed sugar refinery. Norbert accepted the offer and returned to Louisiana to take up his new position. Unfortunately, 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.

Between 1834 and 1843, Norbert Rillieux worked on a machine that would make the sugar refining process easier, safer, and more efficient. He improved the process by using multiple pans stacked inside a vacuum chamber. The vacuum allowed liquids to boil at a lower temperature than in sea-level air, therefore reducing energy for the necessary heat. When heated, the steam from the lower pans rises to heat the higher pans, which meant that only one heat source is needed to start the process. This system was much safer because all workers had to do was put in the cane juice and retrieve the sugar. In addition, unlike the Jamaica Train process, the scorching liquids were not exposed to excessive heat and workers did not have to transfer the liquids. Therefore, the sugar came out white instead of burnt because the heat could be controlled.

It took a few years before anyone tried Norbert Rillieux's new design. The first effort to convince Zenon Ramon in 1834 to use his evaporator wasn’t successful, but in 1843 Rillieux successfully installed his now patented system on a plantation owned by Theodore Packwood. Not long after this, Rillieux's new system was installed at Bellechasse, a plantation owned by Theodore 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.

[edit] Other Work

In the 1850s, New Orleans suffered from an outbreak of Yellow Fever, caused by disease-carrying mosquitoes. Rillieux developed a complex plan for eliminating the outbreak by draining the water in the swamplands surrounding the city and making improvements to the sewer system, which would remove the breeding grounds for the insects and the ability for them to spread the disease. However, Edmund Forstall, who was now a member of the state legislature, spoke out against the plan. Forstall was able to convince his fellow legislators to not award the contract to Rillieux and the plan was rejected. Ironically, a few years later, when Yellow Fever continued to wrack havoc in New Orleans, the state legislature ended up approving an nearly identical plan to that which was submitted by Norbert Rillieux, except that the new plan was submitted by white engineers.

Probably due the constraints and racism that he encountered in Louisiana, Norbert Rillieux returned to France in the late 1850s. In Paris he became interested in Egyptology. After receiving a scholarship, Rillieux studied Egyptian hieroglyphics with the Champollion family and spent the next decade working at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

[edit] Later Life

In 1881, when he was 75 years old, Rillieux returned to the problems of sugar production. This time, he worked on a process to extract sugar from sugar beets. He patented a process for heating sugar beet juice in a multiple-effect evaporation system that cut fuel by half in French factories. 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 the French government refused to recognize his work. As a result, Rillieux abandoned engineering for the second and final time.

Norbert Rillieux died on October 8, 1894 at the age of 87. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His wife, Emily Cuckow, died in 1912 and is buried beside him.

[edit] 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

[edit] External links