Norbert Rillieux: Evaporator

Norbert Rillieux is a famous engineer that was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the son of plantation owner Vincent Rillieux and slave Constance Vivant on March 17, 2015. His father was a very wealth white inventor, as a plantation owner, that designed a steam-powered press to bail cotton. Rillieux began his education in a Catholic school system in New Orleans and was eventually sent to Paris to further his education. At a young age he began to admire his father’s work and decided that he wanted to study chemical engineering. In Paris he had the chance to study at the top engineering school in the country, L’Ecole Centrale. He eventually became an instructor at the school teaching applied mechanics. At the time he was named the youngest …show more content…
He developed this with is strong background in steam power, chemical engineering, applied mechanics and background in sugar considering his father’s plantation processed and refined sugar. His thoughts behind the evaporator were also stemmed by his knowledge that the boiling point of liquids is reduced as the pressure is reduced, similarly to a vacuum. The evaporator worked like this, it was able to harness the energy of the vapors rising from the already boiling sugar cane syrup, then passing the vapors through various chambers, eventually leaving sugar crystals. The evaporator was the best method for lowering the temperature of all industrial evaporation and saved large quantities of fuel. It ultimately made the process cheaper, safer and a more efficient way of evaporating the sugar cane syrup than methods previously …show more content…
Before this he moved back home because he had the choice of living through racism in America or technical conservatism in Europe. He had moved back home by 1834 and became well known in the south because of the importance of his invention in the time of the sugar boom. He eventually installed an evaporator on a southern plantation. His invention was favored by many because it gave a better quality product with less man power and at a reduced cost. To be man of color during this time at his status was hard, however, Rillieux made it through with the success and popularity of his invention. Rillieux evaporator was so relevant to life that it is still used today, and not necessarily to process sugar. It is often used to desalt sea water, recycling in the space station, etc. Rillieux did eventually return to France after things in America got to be a bit too much to handle. Upon his return he, for a while, lost interest in his deals with sugar so he turned to the study of Egyptology. He eventually started working with the translator of the Rosetta Stone, in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. By the age of 75 he turned back to sugar refining. At his point he was able to develop a new system. This new system is for heating thin syrups. Similarly, to his evaporation invention, it is still used today to process cane and beet sugar. After all his contributions and efforts Rillieux died in France in