342 CHAPTER XVIII 



There is a statement due to Rillieux in Senatorial Document No. 50, 

 1845, that he conceived his system of multiple effect evaporation in 1832, 

 though Horsin-Deon, who was Rillieux's assistant, gives the date as September, 

 1830. His first patent is U.S. 3237, 1843. It shows two Howard vacuum 

 pans connected in series. His second patent (U.S. 4879, 1846 ; U.K. 

 13286, 1850) describes for the first time an apparatus functioning in what is 

 now known as multiple effect. The combination consisted of four bodies, 

 of which the fourth was a graining pan receiving steam separated from the 

 first body. The first three bodies were in series. The third and fourth 

 bodies were connected to the condenser, the latter being capable of isolation 

 when it was necessary for it to discharge. His design followed the horizontal 

 fire tube boiler. The first apparatus erected at Letorey's plantation in 

 Louisiana did not give satisfaction, but from the second erected at Myrtle 

 Grove, belonging to Benjamin and Packwood, success was assured. By 1851 

 as many as fifteen plants were in operation in Louisiana. Others were early 

 erected in Cuba at Alava, Ascuncion, Santa Teresa, Minerva, and Julia, 

 in Mexico, and in Peru. Rillieux took into his confidence a German en- 

 gineer, Andrcea, who was then studying steam navigation on the Mississippi. 

 He, without Rillieux's knowledge or consent, sent copies of the drawings 

 to Tischbein in Germany, who completely failed to understand them. 

 Afterwards Tischbein sold the drawings to Call, who also did not completely 

 grasp the principle and method of operation. Rillieux's apparatus was 

 first described in Europe by Dureau, 14 , and in 1852 Robert, a French engineer, 

 constructed the first vertical submerged tube apparatus at Seelowitz in 

 Moravia. Horsin-Deon, however, states that Rillieux had given Andrcea 

 a pencil sketch of a vertical tube apparatus, suggesting that it would be more 

 convenient for cleaning where incrustations were likely to occur. It was not, 

 however, till about 1870 that the method really began to be adopted, and 

 then it was mainly due to Rillieux, who corrected many faults that had been 

 made by the earlier European builders. The first multiple in the cane sugar 

 industry outside of the New World was that at Minchin's diffusion house at 

 Aska, India, erected before 1870, followed by Bene Mazar in Egypt, erected 

 in 1872. In Java the first one was used at Djattiwangi in 1876, and they 

 reached Demerara about 1880. During this period Rillieux was busy in 

 conjunction with Lexa in developing the system of separating steam from a 

 cell early in series while Pauly and Greiner were introducing the pre-evapor- 

 ator system, the first one being installed in 1887. British patents on extra 

 or separated steam were granted to Robertson and Ballinghall (15698 of 

 1890, and 11296 of 1892), and one for the pre-evaporator to Alliott (5496 

 of 1895). At these dates the systems mentioned had become routine practice 

 in Europe. The introduction of the Welner-Jelinek horizontal submerged 

 tube apparatus took place in 1878. The other developments of importance 

 are those due to Yaryan, Lillie and Kestner, dealing with specialized types 

 of apparatus. These as well as other developments after the establishment 

 and recognition of the principle are discussed elsewhere. 



The Actual Apparatus used in Multiple Effect Evaporation. The apparatus 

 in use fall into two main classes ; the submerged tube or bulk, and the film 

 evaporators. These in turn may be subdivided into vertical tube and hori- 

 zontal tube. Each type again has been the subject of many inventions, the 

 same idea appearing repeatedly with no real change. In the following 

 section the vertical submerged tube or " Standard " type is described in 



