, nor in deriving from it comfortable financial support for
himself and family during the remainder of his life.

This was also true in the case of Norbert Rillieux, a colored Creole
of Louisiana. In 1846 he invented and patented a vacuum pan which in
its day revolutionized to a large extent the then known method of
refining sugar. This invention with others which he also patented are
known to have aided very materially in developing the sugar industry
of Louisiana. Rillieux was a machinist and an engineer of fine
reputation in his native State, and displayed remarkable talent for
scientific work on a large scale. Among his other known achievements
was the development of a practicable scheme for a system of sewerage
for the city of New Orleans, but he here met his handicap of color
through the refusal of the authorities to accord to him such an honor
as would be evidenced by the acceptance and adoption of his plan.[18]
Who knows but that the city of New Orleans might have been able to
write a different chapter in the history of its health statistics on
the Yellow Fever peril if its prejudices had not been allowed to
dominate its prophecy?

[Illustration: _N. Rillieux_

_Evaporating Pan._

_No. 4,879_

_Patented Dec. 10, 1846_

_Sheet 3-4 Sheets_]

Let us turn now to a consideration of those inventions made by colored
inventors since the war period, and at a time when no obstacles stood
in the way. With the broadening of their industrial opportunities, and
the incentive of a freer market for the products of their talent, it
was thought that the Negroes would correspondingly exhibit inventive
genius, and the records abundantly prove this to have been true. But
how have these records been made available? It has already been shown
that no distinction as to race appears in the public records of the
Patent Office, and for this reason the Patent Office has been
repeatedly importuned to set in motion some scheme of inquiry that
would disclose, as far as is possible, how many patents have been
granted by the government for the inventions of Negroes. This has been
done by the Patent Office on two different occasions. The first
official inquiry was made by the Office at the request of the United
States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900, and the second at
the request of the Pennsylvania Commission conducting the Emancipation
Exposition at Philadelphia in 1913. In both instances the Patent
Office sent out several