Editing Norbert Rillieux (section)

==Later life==
Norbert Rillieux returned to France in the late 1850s, a few years before the start of the [[American Civil War]]. [[Race relations in the United States]] may have motivated part of his decision to do so since at one point, Rillieux became enraged when one of his applications for a patent was rejected because authorities falsely believed that he was a slave and thus, not a citizen in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/norbertrillieux.html|title=Norbert Rillieux - American Chemical Society|website=American Chemical Society|language=en|access-date=2018-04-29}}</ref>

In Paris, Rillieux became interested in [[Egyptology]] and [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphics]], which he studied with the family of [[Jean-François Champollion]]. He spent the next decade working at the Bibliothèque Nationale.<ref name="biography" />

In 1881, at the age of 75, Rillieux made one last foray into sugar evaporation when he adapted his multiple effect evaporation system to extract sugar from [[sugar beet]]s.  The process for which he filed patent was far more fuel-efficient than that currently in use in the beet sugar factories in France.  Prior to Rillieux's invention, two engineers developed a vacuum pan and electric coils to improve the process of making sugar, but this was unsuccessful due to the use of steam at wrong locations in the machine.{{Cn|date=November 2024}}  Rillieux's process fixed the errors in the previous process, but Rillieux lost the rights to the patent he had filed.{{Clarify|reason=why did he lose them?|date=November 2024}}

Norbert Rillieux died on October 8, 1894, aged 88.  He is buried in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris with the inscription "Ici reposent Norbert Rellieux ingénieur civil né à la Nouvelle Orleans 18 Mars 1806/décédé à Paris le 8 Octobre 1894/Emily Cuckow, Veuve Rillieux 1827-1912."<ref name=":0" /> His wife, Emily Cuckow, died in 1912 and is buried beside him.

In his honor, a bronze memorial was erected in the [[Louisiana State Museum]] with the inscription: "To honor Norbert Rillieux, born at New Orleans, Louisiana, March 17, 1806, and died at Paris, France, October 8, 1894. Inventor of Multiple Evaporation and Its Application to the Sugar Industry."<ref>{{cite book|last=Chenrow|first=Fred|title=Reading Exercises in Black History|year=1974|publisher=The Continental Press, Inc.|location=Elizabethtown, PA|isbn=978-0845421079 |page=52|author2=Chenrow, Carol }}</ref>