View the Original Rillieux Sugar Patents

Norbert Rillieux inventing a sugar processing evaporator and an improved sugar refining process that safely saved time and money in the making of sugar from sugar beets or sugar cane.

Norbert Rillieux was born in New Orleans. His father was a French engineer and a plantation farmer. His mother had been a slave. Rillieux's father sent Norbert to France where he studied engineering. After returning to New Orleans, Rillieux invented his improved sugar refining process and evaporator.

Refining sugar had been a labor-intensive process, involving the handling of boiling hot liquids. The slaves on the plantations performed most of this labor. Rillieux's inventions increased sugar production and reduced production costs. However, the most important thing was that his inventions protected lives by ending the older dangerous methods of sugar production.

Rillieux later returned to France where he continued working on his inventing and published papers on the uses of steam and the steam engine.

Norbert Rillieux
Norbert Rillieux invented the sugar processing evaporator - Invention Dimension.

Sugar Evaporation System
View the prototype model for a sugar evaporation system, dated 1843 and invented by Norbert Rillieux (1806-94).

Norbert Rillieux: Sugar Chemist and Inventor
Norbert Rillieux was revolutionary in the sugar industry, by his inventing of a refining process that reduced the time, cost, and safety risk involved in producing sugar from cane and beets.

View the Original Rillieux Patents

Related Information
Black Inventors

©Mary Bellis