The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-05
MAKING PERFUMES.
Method of Extracting OdOrs From
 Flowers in France.
Public Opinion

Flowers in France.
 Public Opinion.
 In the southern part of France. which borders on the Mediterranean and ex- tends between the Alps and the Rhone, the culture of flowers has developed into a great industry for the manufac- ture of perfumes. Tn the Department of the Alps Maritimes the perfumery industry has probably made greater strides than in any other portion of France" says Nj. Georges Caves in The Monde Moderne of Paris. There are more than sixty factories, the total pro- duct of which is valued at more than $4.000, ,000 per year, and over 1,500 per sons are constantly employed. without counting the multitude of harvest hands. The more important harvests are those of the rose, 4,000,0 900 pounds; the orange flower, 5,000.000 pounds; the violet, 60O.000 pounds; jasmine, 1,200,- 900 pounds; the tuberose, 300,00O pounds; the geranium, 10000 pounds, and the cassia, 300.000 pounds If we consider the fact that all of these flow CTS are weighed without their stems 1t Is evident that the quantity Is enormous, and this fact will be still better appreciated when we say that In order to obtain two pounds of rose leaves no less than thousand flowers are required, while a thousand punches of violets. each with diameter of more than a foot, furnish only forty pounds of flowers"
 Flowers all go through a preliminary treatment of being placed In a cold room, and plants such as lavender, thyme, spike mint, roots such as orris. fruits and woods, are passed through cutting and macerating machines. Af ter this has been done the perfume Is extracted. the principal methods being azAG IIoAf f1w. NHzw. aD,., T by the use of dissolvents. Distillation Is only employed when the perfume is not injured by heat or steam. Tn this case the flowers and water are put in a great alembic and heated. After the water begins to boil 1t disorganiZes the vegetable cells containing the perfume and this is carried by the steam through the worm and condensed. There is thus obtained a mixture of water and perfume, and 1t Is merely necessary now to separate the two. The process of distillation, however. has the great disadvantage of frequently altering the perfumes obtained. and, therefore, when 1t Is desired to ob- tain finer extracts recourse must be had to other methods
 For maceration the flowers are thrown into mass of fat melted and raised to a temperature of 65 degrees centigrade and completely submerged, after several hours the perfume being incorporated with the fat. The mass Is then strained to get rid of the flow CTS. after which the latter are soaked in boiling water and compressed hy- draulically. In this way all the per fume Is extracted. In the enheurage method frames are used, the bottom of which are glass. The frames are placed one above the other. small space being left between the glass plates. glass. and the flowers are placed in direct contact with the fat. At the end of a certain time, which varies wit.. the flowers, the perfume is absorbed by the fat. after which the flowers are re- newed until the pomade Is of the de- sired strength ..s~.-
 A third method is that of volatile dis solvents In general the dissolvent em- ployed Is an ether of refined petroleum The apparatuses used are of different form, but they must all contain an extractor into which the flowers are placed cold with the dissolvent, a de- canter where the water contained in the flowers Is separated from the mix ture, distilling alembic which forces the dissolvent back through the flow CTS, and certain number of reservoirs in which the dissolvent is kept in a pure state or charged with perfume The dissolvent after being charged with the perfume evaporates and leaves be- hind the essential oil In the single Department of Alps -Marltimes the an nual production Is S0O.000 pounds of pomade and 4.000,OO0 quarts of extracts