Blacks invented despite the odds -- Part 3

Norbert Rillieux's" multiple effect vaparator" device revolutionized the sugar
refining industry. In some circles, this invention is hailed as the
greatest in the field of chemical engineering.

Note: This is the third of a seven-part series on black inventors in recognition of Black History Month.

By Craig T. Greenlee

College degrees in any field of study were non-existent for blacks in early America. But Norbert Rillieux was one of the notable exceptions to the rule of that day.

Norbert Rillieux 
Rillieux was Creole, whose father declared him to be a free person. This pioneer chemical engineer masterminded an evaporating system that provided a more efficient process for refining sugar.

Educated at a French university in Paris, young Rillieux became a steam engine efficiency expert while teaching at his alma mater. Yet, he longed to return to his father's sugar plantation in  Louisiana with a superior sugar refining method.

In 1834, Rillieux received a patent for his invention -- the multiple effect vaporator -- and he got a second patent on a much-improved model several years later. The evaporator lowered the production costs of sugar refiners considerably, which enabled the masses to buy white crystalline sugar for the first time.

Sugar cane producers enjoyed higher profits and slaves were no longer needed to work over boiling kettles of sugar cane juice as they had before Rillieux's evaporator.

Next: The real story about "the real McCoy"

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