The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-07-11
TOILET PERU MES.
HOW FLORAL FRAGRANCE IS CAUGHT
IN LAYERS OF GREASE.
""o OF the Simplest and Most Effective
PROCESSES Known to Chemical Science
Preparing Perfumes for USE
Essential Oils.
New York Snn1

~ nv, S"iu u chemist. 1T docs not
follow, nowadays, because toilet perfume
IS maze IN france, or any other foreign
country that 1t is superior in quality to one
oil Aherlcan preparation. Such was for
merry the case, but the art Of making fine
perfumes has been carried to such psrfec
tioh OF late years in this country that not
more than one-eighth as much of the French
preparations is sold in the United States to.
day rs was sold ten years ago. Nearly 50
OJO,0O0 worth of home-distilled perfumes
were made in this city alone last year. and
Chicago made nearly half as great a ouan.
tlty a. TINT Then there are large perfumerv
manufacturing establishments in Boston.
Philadelphia, St Louis San Francisco, AMI
other cities"
Are the American as good as the French?r
EXACTLY as good for the general impress
SION That many Of our best handkerchief ex-
tracts bearing the names of flowers arc
merely chemical limitations of the genuine
doors Is far from correct The fact is that
genuine oils of flowers of which pure Ameri-
can perfumes are made. are imported prin-
clphlly from France, and genuine musk and
aihhtrEris, the two most important and val
liable bases for fine perfumes must be Oh
talhei IN other countries While the best
American made perfumes are equal in quail
| iiy to the finest of the French
such could not be the case if We
had not that country to depend
| upon for our essential oils. The rea-
son for this is that no successful efforts have
been made in this country to raise flowers of
sufficient richness and density of perfume to
supply essential oil in sufficient quantities
, to make it profitable to extract them, al
though it is held that the odorous blossoms
OF some OF tue southern states, especially
Florida and other gulf states, have the full
bouquet Of the same blooms gro wing in
| southern France, that great garden of COM
mcrclal odorS The flowers that lead as pro
vulers Of the popular perfumes for tle
handkerchief and toilet are the jasmine, VIC.
let, tuhero5e, rose bitter orange flower, and
caSsia. Combinations of these with amber
| girls and musk result in all the delicious per
| fumes that are used
These flowers, or the most of them, are
indi ;anous to the south of France. Cassia
the blossom Of the cinnamon tree, come
from the East miles, aS does the tuberose.
Bitter orange is from upper Italy. The oils
of violet, tuberose. jasmine, and other deli
cate flowers, being highly volatile, must be
| extracted in peculiar manner in order tina
they may be retained amy length of time fol
use. The essential oil in violets is the mos
volatile of all flower extracts and, as tht
flower itself is the most difficult TO grow o.
all the perfume flowers, violet extract is o
double the value of any other volatile essen
tial oil Of flowers Cassia is used as a suhsti
tute for violet when the latter is scarce. TIN
oil, of these flowers are extracted and hell
by what is known technically as grease al
surption, but the French give the process tn
more delicate name of enfleurage
IL do not know who discovered the process
Int it is one of the simplest, and at the sam
time one of tie most effective, known t
chemical science. A layer Of refined fat
\ spread upon a large wire sieve with sma
5 meshe5. Upon this bed of grease the delicat
petals If the odoT-bearng flowers are scat
e tered loosely Then a layer of fat is sprea
upon the flowers, and then more petals, an
so on, until the sieve is filled 1t is the
covered NJ and subjected for ten or lively
; hours to temperature just below the poI
at which the fat would melt. Then the hes
is increased until the fat becomes liquid an
runs through the meshes of the sieve, into
| vat arranged to receive ii, charged with tx
4 perfume Of the flowers The leaves, al
| parently odorleSs. remain in the sieve, bI
ono distiilation does not rob them of all the
] sweetness, and some of the same ia
when cold, is mixed with them again, an
the same process repeated In turn, son
of the second dEstillation is run through ii
a sieve with the flowers, which are then, i
a deed, robbed Of all their fragrance III
last two processes make the double al
triple extracts known to the trade. III
= grease, holding the rare oils of the flower
r is then sealed in cans and is ready for ma
9. ket, which it finds all over Europe and
u this country The trade name of this grea
u Is pOmade extract
"ln preparing tile perfumes for use Il
- manufacturer treat the pomade with ODD
less alcohol, that made from corn being t.
best, although spirits made from potato
and grapes are used, but these two a
never perfectly odorless, and, therefore, &
finest perfumes cannot be prepared fro
them The alcohol becomes at once the &
fnity of the perfume held by the grea'
anl it readily leaves the latter and ia
the spirits The grease is still there, no
ever To remove it from the affiliated y,
fume and spirits the compound i subject
C to gradually lowering temperature uu
~ the grease congeals. 1t is then an easy mi
ter to run the liquid off, and all that is Ii
he to do is to bottle it, cork it, and label it, a
it is ready for any lady's handkerchief.
in "Bitter-oranCe flowers, rose leaves, cas-
to and other perfume flowers have fixed esst
tial oils, which are obtained by distillatiS
in The neroli oil of trade is obtained from h
OF ter-urange blooms These flowers are abuI
ant everywhere in Florida, and most of
" other choice perfumery flowers grow the
and along the gulf in profusion. AbC
al s.. 900 900 worth of toilet perfumes are $,
nil here every year, the bases for the most p'
Of which are imported