154 



MANUFACTURES OF GRASSE AND CANNES. 



1857. 



EnJUurage. 



Extracts. 



flowers. These are now thinly sprinkled, rather laid one by 

 one, upon the surface of the fat, where they are allowed to 

 remain until the next day or day after, when they are removed 

 and fresh flowers supplied. The chassis, charged with fat and 

 flowers, are stacked one upon the other, forming in fact a 

 number of little rectangular chambers, the upper and lower 

 surfaces of each of which are of glass covered with a thin 

 layer of fat sprinkled with flowers, the sides being of wood. In 

 one manufactory which I inspected, only one surface of each 

 chassis was coated with fat, the jessamine flowers being placed 

 in an abundant layer upon the other surface : in another estab- 

 lishment, flowers of mignonette were being similarly treated. 

 In this arrangement the flowers do not, of course, come in con- 

 tact with the fat, but the latter is simply suspended above them 

 to receive and absorb their odour. The flowers require changing 

 either daily or every other day for forty or fifty days before the 

 pomade is sufficiently impregnated with their odour. It is 

 essential that all flowers employed in this process should be 

 collected during dry weather. 



When oil has to be impregnated with the odour of flowers, a 

 chassis is used which is of larger size, and has a diaphragm of 

 coarse wirework instead of glass. Upon this diaphragm is laid 

 a cotton cloth of a peculiar, thick, absorbent texture, soaked with 

 oil ; flowers are then spread upon it, and renewed daily until the 

 requisite odour has been obtained. The oil is then pressed from 

 the cloth and filtered : each cloth imbibes about 2 Ibs. of oil. 



The preparations called by the perfumers Extracts are made by 

 treating the highly-scented oil or pomade with spirit of wine, so 

 as to dissolve out the essential oil which either may have ab- 

 sorbed from the flowers with which it has been placed. This 

 process is more usually conducted by the general perfumer than 

 by the distiller and manufacturer of Grasse or Cannes, the busi- 

 ness of the latter being more particularly with what he terms 

 the matures premieres. The pomade or oil, after having yielded 

 to spirit the greater portion of its odour, is yet valuable for 

 other purposes to which it can readily be applied by the manu- 

 facturing perfumer. 



