CHAPTER 1 12 At the same time, George Stevens approached Eugene with an offer to buy the rights to a process he had developed as Chief Chemist for Great Western Sugar’s Scottsbluff, Nebraska plant. Stevens had discovered that rapidly heating massecuite before discharging it into the centrifugal improved efficiency by reducing viscosity without dissolving too many sugar crystals. Combined with high speeds, the process (using what came to be called the Stevens Mingler) dramatically increased the efficiency of the centrifugals. Roberts not only acquired the patents for the process, he convinced Stevens to join Western States as its Chief Sugar Technologist. Roberts and Stevens continued to refine the company’s equipment, looking for ways to improve productivity, efficiency, reliability, and safety. By the mid-1930s, the constant travel was starting to take a toll on Eugene. He had already moved his family to New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood before building a home in Hastings-on-Hudson in the early 1920s, so he decided to work out of Western States’ sales office at 350 Madison Avenue in Manhattan’s Grand Central district in New York, New York. His imagination continued to churn out more ideas that led to faster, more efficient centrifugals and new markets for the company’s equipment. above: George Stevens. The first sugar technologist hired by Western States to help customers better understand sugar and increase their production efficiencies with centrifugals throughout the refinery.