Norbert Rillieux (1806-1894), a free black man, invented the first successful multiple effect
vacuum process for producing sugar. Born and raised in New Orleans, Rillieux was sent
by his wealthy parents to engineering school in Paris. Young Rillieux was an outstanding
student and after graduating from L'Ecole Centrale, taught at the school.  Rillieux soon
became interested in the processes of thermal dynamics and steam power. By 1830 he was
already experimenting with a multiple effect vacuum evaporator.  He returned to New
Orleans from France and developed a vacuum evaporator specifically designed for
processing sugar from sugar cane.

It took him several years to convince local planters to try it. A first effort at the
plantation of Zenon Ramon in 1834 never got off the ground, but in 1843 Rillieux installed his system on the "Myrtle Grove" plantation owned by Theodore Packwood. By 1844
the widely known manufacturers Merrick & Towne in Philadelphia were offering planters a selection of three different vacuum evaporator systems. Planters were able to select
systems capable of producing 6000, 12,000, or 18,000 pounds of sugar per day. In 1846
Rillieux was able to convince several planters to install them on the sugar factories on
their plantations. The vacuum evaporators proved so efficient that planters were able to
cover the costs of the new equipment with the expanded profits from the sugar cane
planters, Judah P. Benjamin and Theodore Packwood.

This patent model shows two vacuum containers or pans. In practice three or even four
could be used with Rillieux's system. Today multiple effect vacuum evaporation is used
in processing food products and other industrial products.  Finely wrought and full of information, patent models are educational and fun to collect, but hard to find. The first
U.S. patent law passed in 1790 required that each inventor submit a detailed model of the invention along with the patent drawing and application. In  the late 1800s a series of
patent laws eliminated the models. But even before that time two major fires in the
Patent Office (1836 and 1877) destroyed almost a hundred thousand of the models.
This Rilliuex model is one that survived.

(Text courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)

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