Where did norbert rillieux work

Rillieux pronunciation
Constance vivant
Norbert rillieux invention

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Norbert Rillieux

American inventor, engineer (1806–1894)

Norbert Rillieux (March 17, 1806 – October 8, 1894) was a Louisiana Creole inventor who was widely considered one of the earliest chemical engineers and noted for his pioneering invention of the multiple-effect evaporator. This invention was an important development in the growth of the sugar industry. Rillieux, a French-speaking Creole,^[1] was a cousin of the painter Edgar Degas.

Family

Norbert Rillieux was born into a prominent Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the son of Vincent Rillieux, a white plantation owner and inventor, and his placée, Constance Vivant, a free person of color.^[2]^[3] Norbert was the eldest of seven children. His siblings were: Barthelemy, Edmond, Marie Eugenie, Louis, Marie Eloise, and Cecile 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

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Norbert Rillieux

Norbert Rillieux revolutionized the sugar industry by inventing a refining process, evaporation in multiple effect, that is still in use today not only for the production of sugar, but also of soap, gelatin, condensed milk, and glue, as well as for the recovery of waste liquids in factories and distilleries.

Rillieux's system, in which a series of vacuum pans heat one another in sequence, had immediate impacts. First, it replaced a dangerous, labor-intensive process known as the "Jamaican Train," in which slaves were required to transfer boiling cane juice from one cauldron to another. The new process also produced a higher-quality product while using less fuel. These improvements in efficiency catapulted the U.S. into a leading role in global sugar production and helped transform sugar from a luxury item to a commonplace one.

Norbert Rillieux was born in New Orleans, the son of a white engineer and a freed slave. He studied applied mechanics at the Ecole Centrale in Paris, but returned to New Orleans in the 1830s. As the status of free blacks deteriorated in

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Norbert Rillieux and the Multiple Effect Evaporator

Sugar Production and the Multiple Effect Evaporator

Sugar cane had been planted as early as 1750 near New Orleans, but with only limited success. Throughout most of the eighteenth century indigo, a blue dye, was Louisiana’s cash crop, but the ravages of disease and insects forced planters to look for alternatives. By the 1790s, interest in sugar revived. Production rose steadily thereafter, and by 1830 Louisiana was producing over 33,000 tons of sugar annually.

Sugar cane is normally harvested in the fall. After cutting, the cane is milled to produce sugar cane juice. Originally animal power was used to grind the cane; by the 1830s, steam power began to replace animal power. In either case, the cane juice was boiled in four large open kettles arranged in a kettle train. Each kettle was of different size, and the kettles were arranged from the largest, which held up to five hundred gallons, to the smallest. The first kettle, the largest one, was called the grande, the next the flambeau, then the sirop, and finally, the sm