Sharp County record., 1885-04-30
eOTTLING SWEET oDoRS.

Perfume Flowers-ProPerties OF Amber
girls.
"Oh. no, said chemist 1T does
not follow, nowadays, because a toilet
perfume is made in France, or any Othet
foreign country, that it is superior in
quality to one of American preparation.
Such was formerly the case, but the art
of making fine perfumes has been car
ried to such perfection of late years in
this country that not more than one
eighth as much of the French prepara-
ti0ns is sold in the United States to-day
as was sold ten years ago. Nearly
$4,000, 900 wofth of home-distilled per-
fumes were made in this city alone last
year, and Chyhg made nearly half as
great a quantity as that. Then there
are large pert. .mery manufacturing es,
tablishments IN Boston, Philadelphia,
St. Louis, San Francisco and other
cities" Are the American as good as
the French?"
Exactly as good. for the general i'm.
preston that many of our best hsndker.
chief extracts bearing the names OF
flowers are merely chemical i'm tations
of the genuine OdOrs is far from cor
rect. The fact is that genuine oils OF
flowers, of which pure American per-
fumes are made, are imported princi-
palIy from France, and genuine musk
and ambergris, the two most impOr-
tant and valuable bases for fine per.
fumes, must be obtained in other coun.
tries. While the best American-made
perfumes are equal in quality 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
reason for this is that no successful ef-
forts have been made in this country to
raise flowers of sufficient richness and
density Of perfume to supply essential
oils in sufficient quantities to make it
profitable to extract them, although It
is held that the odorous blooms Of some
of the Southern States. especially Flor
ida and other Gulf States, have the full
bouquet of the same blooms grown in
Southern France, that great garden OF
commercial Odors. The flowers that
lead as providers of popular perfumes
for the handkerchief and toilet are the
Jasmine, violet, tuberose. rose. bitter
orange flower. and cassia. COmbina-
tions of these with ambergris and musk
result in the delicious perfumes that are
used.
These flowers. or the most Of them,
are Indigenous to the south Of France.
Cassia, the blossom of the cinnamon
tree. comes from the East Indies, as
does the tuberose. Bitter orange Is
from upper Italy The oils of violet,
tuberose, jasmine and other delicate
flowers, being highly volatile, must be
extracted in peculiar manner in order
that they may be retained any length OF
time for usev The essential oil in viO-
lets is the most volatile Of all flower eX-
tracts, and, as the flower itself Is the
most difieufT to grow Of all the per-
fume flowers, violet extract Is Of double
the value of any other volatile essential
oil of flowers. Cassia is used as a sub
stitute for violet when the latter is
scarce. The oils of these flowers are
extracted and held by what is known
technically as grease absorption, but
the French give the process the more
delicate name of enfleurage. | do not
know who discovered the process, but
it is one of the simplest, and at the same
time one Of the most effective, known
to chemical science. A layer OF re-
fined fat is spread upon a large wire
sieve with small meshe5. Upon this
bed of grease the delicate petals of
the odor-bearing flowers are scattered
loosely. Then layer Of fat is spread
upon the flowers, and then more petals,
and so on, until the sieve is filled. 1t
is then covered up and subjected for
ten or twelve hours to temperature
Just below the point at which the fat
would melt. Then the heat is in
creased until the fat becomes liquid and
runs through .he meshes Of the sieve
into vat arranged to receive it,
charged with the perfume Of the flow
ers. The leaves, apparently odorless,
remain in the sieve, but one distillation
does not rob them of all their sweet
ness. and some of the same fat, when
cold. is mixed with them again, and
the same process repeated. In turn,
| some of the second distillatiOn is run
through the sieve with the flowers.
which are then, indeed, robbed Of all
| their fragrance. The last two processes
make the double and triple extracts
known to the trade. The grease, hold
ing the rare oils of the flowers, is then
sealed in cans and is ready for market,
which it finds all over Europe and in
this country. The trade name of this
grease is pomade eXtract.-M Y. Sun.