Norbert Rillieux

• Born: March 17, 1806
• Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
• Died: October 8, 1894
• Place of death: Paris, France

Scientist and inventor

Through his invention of the multiple-effect evaporation system, Rillieux revolutionized the sugar-refining industry, improving efficiency, quality, safety, and profitability. His process helped the United States become one of the major sugar-producing countries in the world. Other industries that faced the problem of liquid reduction, including makers of soap, gelatin, and glue, adopted Rillieux’s system.

Areas of achievement: Invention; Science and technology

Early Life

Born into a prominent Creole family in New Orleans, Norbert Rillieux (NOR-burt RIHL-ee-yoo) was the oldest of seven children. His father was a white plantation owner, engineer, and inventor. His mother, Constance Vivant, was a free black woman and former slave.

After being educated in private Roman Catholic schools in New Orleans, Rillieux studied physics and engineering at the L’École Centrale in Paris during the early 1820’s. He focused his research on steam engines and published several papers on applications of steam engines and steam power in industry. By 1830, he had become an instructor of applied mechanics at L’École Centrale.

Rillieux thrived on diversifying his engineering talents. He became an expert machinist and a competent blacksmith. His understanding of thermodynamics led him to investigate evaporation processes necessary to remove the water in processing sugarcane. In 1833, Rillieux returned to his father’s plantation in Louisiana, where the primary work had shifted from the production of cotton to processing and refining sugar.

Life’s Work

Although sugarcane had become the dominant crop in Louisiana during the early nineteenth century, the sugar-refining process employed at the time was very inefficient and dangerous. In an effort to address these problems, the steam-operated single-pan vacuum technique was introduced in France in the 1830’s to evaporate water during the sugar-refining process. Rillieux greatly improved the efficiency of this system by including a second and later a third pan to form the multiple-stage evaporator system. He patented his invention in 1843.

Rillieux’s system used a vacuum chamber to lower the boiling point of the sugarcane liquid, with several pans stacked inside the chamber to contain the hot syrup. As the bottom pans heated, they released steam that transferred heat through internal coils to the pans above to convert the hot syrup into grains of sugar. Rillieux’s evaporator system solved both the spillage problem—which resulted from transferring the sugarcane juice from a large kettle into smaller pots—and the problem of uneven application of heat for the pots, thus making the sugar-refining process safer for workers. By the late 1840’s, numerous sugar factories throughout the southeastern United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean were using Rillieux’s invention. Because the evaporators were so efficient, sugar makers quickly recovered the costs of the new system from the huge profits they reaped from increased sugar production.

In the early 1850’s, during a yellow fever outbreak in New Orleans, Rillieux devised a plan to eliminate the moist breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which carried the disease. Although his plan was not implemented at that time, a similar plan was adopted in New Orleans a few years later. In 1854, frustrated with racism in America, Rillieux returned to his teaching job at L’École Centrale and was promoted to headmaster. He spent much of his time creating new inventions and defending his patents. He also became interested in Egyptology, deciphered hieroglyphics, and worked at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France) in Paris for ten years. In 1881, Rillieux adapted his multiple-effect evaporation vacuum system to extract sugar from sugar beets. Ultimately, his system was applied to all industrial processes involving liquid reduction.

When Rillieux died in 1894, he was buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery, where many of the illustrious dead of France had been laid to rest. He left his wife, Emily Cuckow, with considerable wealth. A bronze plaque was placed at the Louisiana State Museum in 1930 to honor Rillieux for his inventions. In 1934, the International Sugar Cane Technologists created a memorial to Rillieux.

Significance

Through the use of Rillieux’s multiple-stage evaporation system, refined sugar crystals from sugarcane became a common commodity for which refiners found markets throughout the world. After refined sugar reached European markets, Rillieux applied his evaporation system to sugar beets, which greatly reduced the cost of sugar production. Thereafter, the process was applied to all industrial evaporation processes, including the making of condensed milk, gelatin, soap, glue, and whisky, and to the recycling of waste products from paper mills. Some experts have called Rillieux’s evaporator the greatest invention in the history of American chemical engineering. Rillieux was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2004 for automating and improving the efficiency of modern sugar production. Rillieux’s evaporators continue to be used in numerous applications, from desalinating sea water to recycling processes in the International Space Station.

Bibliography

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. “Sugar and Norbert Rillieux.” In Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Describes Rillieux’s achievements and his place in science history.

Marché, Wina. African American Achievers in Science, Medicine, and Technology: A Resource Book for Young Learners, Parents, Teachers, and Librarians. Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2003. Offers brief biographies and summaries of the achievements of more than one hundred African American scientists, including Rillieux. Includes sources for further reading.

Sullivan, Otha Richard. “Norbert Rillieux.” In African American Inventors. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. Biography of Rillieux that places his achievements in the context of the struggle for equal opportunity.