He is the inventor of the Engelberg huller, a machine used to strip the husks from rice and coffee during harvest.

In 1885, while constructing a water wheel, Engelberg observed a group of slaves stripping rice pestles by hand, the main method at the time.

He returned to his workshop and immediately began working on a machine that he finished the next day, thus creating the first rice peeler horizontal cylinder.

In 1890, the Gazeta de Piracicaba reported that Engelberg was appointed a member of the Parisian Academy of Inventors, and awarded a gold medal for his invention.

The maintenance of the machines was also quite simple and inexpensive, which was advantageous, because the main methods of cleaning the coffee still depended on slave labor in mills.