MAKING OF PERFUMES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3147, 11 December 1922, Page 2

MAKING OF PERFUMES.

Perfumes are supposed to be as old as the Pyramids; those ort Grasse (southern Franco) are at least as old asi the Romans, writes Blanche McManus in the New York Herald. At one of the largest of these Grasse establishments we were obligingly given welcome by perhaps the most pppiular maker of all. Yon are shown, into a large room where the blossoms are heaped up high on broad tables. It all depends upon the season as to winch flowers will be most in evidence, the w bite orange blossoms of early spring, the red roses of high summer. 01 the violets of mid-winter. From here one passes into the larding . rooms. ihe white lard is carefully'stripped 1 from the lean, resembling white tissue paper as transparent as gauze. These white tissues of lard are laid m great, shallow pans and over them are sprinkled the petals of flowers, each variety distinct unto itself. These tray-hke pans are then taken to the rooms wbeio, lined up in rows, are the. copper mysterious apparatus of a. laboratory o the old-time alchemist tor distilling his potions. Here, after the layers of fresh pork fat are thoroughly impregnated with the odors of the blossoms that carpel them, the mass of perfumed lard is put. into the stills, when, drop hy drop, through zig-zag copper ceils, the essence, the sweet souls ol the lloweis. is arrived at. The first essay at tin liqiicfication of an odor is a. very crude beginning. Anvb#dy could cany '■ procedure, a certain part of the way. The art, as well as the secret of the art. of the perfume maker lies in the subtle blending, of these various essences in rightful marriages and just proportions. Here is where the perfume makers el Grasse take their proper place as the greatest master perfumers of the world. The curious fact is that no single commercially known perfume is the essence of any one single flower. Evidently each flower has not only one soul-mate, hut manv soul-mates. Most polygamous arc perfumes! For example, a- violet pei fume requires the admixture of tluce or four “essences” of as many different flowers before the captivating breath oI dewy violets is given out to charm the olfactory sense.