Norbert rillieux biography book

These early explorations became the foundation of the technology he would later implement in his evaporator. In the s, the process for sugar refinement was slow, expensive, and inefficient. The most common method of converting sugarcane into sugar was called the "Sugar Train"; it was also known as the "Spanish Train" or "Jamaica Train". The sugarcane juice was pressed from the cane and poured into a large kettle, where it was heated and left until most of the water evaporated.

The workers, who were mostly slaves, poured the resultant thick liquid into smaller and smaller pots as the liquid continued to thicken. 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 to routinely transfer the hot liquid.

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. InForstall, 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. However, the sugar refinery was never completed due to disagreements between the principals, mainly Edmond Rillieux, his father, Vincent Rillieux, and Edmund Forstall. In spite of the failure of the collaboration, Norbert Rillieux remained focused on improving the sugar refining process, developing his machine between andwhen he patented it.

The multiple-effect evaporation system that he invented addressed both the norbert rillieux biography book 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 several pans are stacked 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 Train 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. He gained recognition as one of the prime architects of the modern sugar industry.

Techniques developed by Rillieux are now commonly used in the reduction or concentration of saturated liquids into super-saturated liquids, high density solids, or dry granules. Rillieux's invention has been adopted for the production of any number of solids and reduced liquids whose products are sensitive to heat. The manufacture of such commodities as condensed milk, soaps, gelatins and glues, the recovery of waste liquids in distilleries and paper-making factories, and the processing and production of petrochemicals all have used Rillieux's basic invention, or devices that are based on his process.

His parents were Vincent Rillieux, a white man, and Constance Vivant, a freed Under this program, ACS grants Landmark status to seminal achievements in the history of the chemical sciences and provides a record of their contributions to chemistry and society in the United States. Lesson Overview : The lesson includes multiple components as outlined individually below.

Student handouts and corresponding answer keys are provided for each item described below: Introduction: Take a few minutes to introduce the lesson with a few conversation starters. Norbert Rillieux was born a gens de couleur libre —a free person of color—in New Orleans prior to the Civil War. Being a free African American, Rillieux navigated a fine line between enslaved persons of color and free whites.

He was educated in France and returned to Louisiana to practice engineering. There he invented the multiple-effect evaporator, a safer and more efficient device that improved the consistency of sugar produced on plantations. Rillieux is celebrated today as one of the earliest chemical engineers in history, owing to his understanding of thermodynamics, engineering practices and chemistry.

Tensions were growing that would eventually erupt in the American Civil War. It is reasonable to assume those swelling tensions affected Rillieux. Byfree persons of color were no longer permitted to move freely about the streets of New Orleans. Although they paid taxes, they could not use the New Orleans public school systems. Nor could they stop within the New Orleans city limits before they presented the guarantee of some white man.

Norbert rillieux biography book

If they did not leave the city when ordered to, they could be imprisoned and set to hard labor. Those restrictions, coupled with the rapid decline of the sugar industry in Louisiana during the Civil Warare seen to have contributed to Rillieux's decision to return to Paris. Since he was considered to be quite successful, it was assumed that he was in comfortable circumstances when he left New Orleans.

The year of his departure remains in question, but he was again living in Paris sometime between and On his return to Paris, Rillieux dropped from sight for some time. It is believed that he temporarily lost interest in sugar refining. Instead, he turned to the study of Egyptology, which was then a fashionable pursuit among Parisian intellectuals.

At the age of 75, Rillieux returned to sugar refining. He developed and patented a system for heating thin syrups. This innovation is still used in cane and beet sugar factories today. Rillieux later lost patent rights to what eventually was called the "French Process" for sugar refining. The process combined his ideas and patents on the extensive uses of steam to power multiple vacuum evaporation and the heating of thin juices and vapor boiling techniques that did not damage syrups or sugars.

With the loss of rights to these important techniques, it is reported by Horsin-Deon that Rillieux died in France ina broken-hearted man. He was buried at the churchyard of Per La Chaise. His wife, Emily Cuckow, was buried next to him in Rillieux has been called a scientific genius and, as a visionary who left his colleagues far behind, one of the most distinguished engineers of all time.

While not widely known nor widely acclaimed, chemists and chemical engineers and sugar technologists who are familiar with Rillieux and his work have generally used strong words of praise for him and his inventions, and have cited the widespread applications of the basic techniques he developed. Ronald Press Company, Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.