New Orleans History -- Lake Pontchartrain
Friday, November 01, 2024
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1806 Norbert Rillieux is Born

The birth record on file in the City Hall of New Orleans describes the birth
of a son to an engineer and a slave on his Plantation. 'Norbert Rillieux,
quadroon libre, natural son of Vincent Rillieux and Constance Vivant. Born March
17, 1806. Baptized in St. Louis Cathedral by Pere Antoine.'


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Rillieux's invention was the multiple-effect evaporation system, linking several vessels by a series of steam chambers so that each vessel after the first was heated by the vapor from the preceding one. Rillieux's design significantly reduced fuel consumption and is considered the most important innovation in 19th-century sugar manufacturing technology. Multiple-effect evaporation was first used in Louisiana and then spread to other parts of the world.

Sources: href="http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/rillieux_biography.html#Comments">http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/rillieux_biography.html#Comments
 & href="http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/rillieux_biography.html#Evaporator">http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/rillieux_biography.html#Evaporator