The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-04
Where Roses Jonquils
and Violets Sweet
en- the Air.
HOW PERFUMES ARE MADE.
Little Connection Between
the Flower and the
Scent Bottle.


ton of a city of scent. One imagines
for such a dainty trade the clustered
closeness of a village set in a valley,
where all storms are softened, and the
sunlight lies in golden mists on the
scented fields; not this gray, scattered
town fastened on the steepness Of a
windswept hill, with a thousand feet
of rock rising cold and bare above it
into the sky. Yet as one mounts along
the winding way, while Grasse is still
above one, the air that is always set
ting from the colder hill through the
stone built terraces Of olive brings from
their violet carpets an odor there is
no installing long before the flower
beds appear, writes a contributor to
the London Post. The blossom harvest
is but beginning, and only around the
factories can the occupation of the
place be guessed. but later. when the
sun is hotter and the wind lies quiet
till evening on the hill, and the har-
vest OF the orange flowers is piled in
great heaps of white and gold on the
floors, heavy wearying odor fills the
narrow streets, which stultifies the
palate of those who breathe it, and
clogs the nOstrils long after the town
has been left behind.
Probably those who use scent most
know least about its making. and
thoSgh there is no poetic connection be-
tween the flower and the scent bottle
ana some establishment for those who
believe in the labels of the scent
maker, some may find it interesting to
learn how it is made. Scent. whether
from flowers, woods or animals. is OBJ
tanned by crushing or distillatiOn; by
crushing if a tincture be required and
if an essence by distillation.
The first step in the former process
is to immerse the f1Owers-for flowers
it is that are chiefly so treated-in
something that will suck the scent from
them and hold it. This is found to be
best effected by common fat. A layer of
this is spread on glass tray, and over
1t is sprinkled a layer of flowers. then
on this another surface of fat, and an
other thickness of flowers, till the tray
is filled to the level of its edges with a
triple or quadruple sandwich of fat and
flowers. On the floor of the room where
the trays are filled stand little hills of
purple and saffron and silver, where the
violets, jonquils and narcissus are
picked from their stems. When the
trays are full each sandwich is swept
from the glass and placed in the iron
presses, where the fat and blossoms are
crushed together under heat by con-
centrically driven pistons, and the
liquid fat oozes out of the press on to
a ledge which runs beneath, and from
which it is collected.
The flowers which have been thus
treated are then removed TO boilers,
where, with a further dressing of fat,
they simmer for a day and night.
The fat so obtained, which is but
slightly scented, is used for future
spreading of the trays. Meanwhile the
fat which first eXudes has been car
ried in ten-gallon tins TO cool, forming,
when set, family tinted pomade, in
which form it can be kept, II well lid
ded, without loss Of perfume
In the making of scented soaps this
pomade can be used for direct mixture,
but in scent-making the use of the fat
is at an end as soon as it has stolen
the perfume Of the flower and the next
step is to find some agent to steal the
perfume from the fat. For this pure
alcohol is used. Copper cylinders,
through each of which runs a revolving
axis fitted with fans, are filed with the
spirit, which is thus kept in continuous
motion, and the Ns6 Slowly added from
above.
In about twenty-four hours all the
scent has passed from the keeping of
M La' 'il9ss ~ w ~ u
- men uiawA Oh rom .lIe ~ lIIiueI anu
tdheh 70 Ile TIN - d-gI' N %iIlGH an
tHe 81 ease MlIIG!l sIie alSoiioi Lao az
soIpeu Is uepOSlIeu -" IIeH Il9 teHIPeI d
ture IS lowered, ana the spirit drawn
from it forms, when filtered the scent
of commerce. Perhaps one should
rather say it forms a basis of the scent
or commerce, since the maker VINO m
scribes WHITE Lilac, wood Violet :
NerVeine, Nugent des Apes and
other tempting tltles on MS Dottles only
asserts the resemblance OF the scent 10
and not It's descent from the hover.
The pure tincture would be too dear for
commerce and too faint, the maker
thinks, to please his patrons; so he
uses it only to distinguish his combina-
tions, which rely on simpler and strong
or essences for the main part Of their
effect.
These essences are produced chiefly
by distilla.ion, a process which consists
in boiling water impregnated with the
scent-giving material and carrying the
steam produced, which bears with ii
particles of essential oil, through a
coiled tube immersed in water till the
steam is cooled to a liquid shape again
and drips as water into a vessel at the
further end of the coil, the oil it has
carried over floating on the surface
and being thus easily drawn off. These
essences are scent in its most consoli-
dated form, and have to be largely di-
luted before being used, and many OF
them smell extremely unpleasant be-
fore dilution.
Those in most common use can be
guessed from the supplies outside tbs
distilling room. Here are red stacks
of sandal-wood, which overpoWer eV-
cry other flavor in the place, piles Of
white Orris root. the substitute for VIC
let and dark iunkS Of ODODanax the