THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



[April 1, 1865. 



386 



THE COMMERCIAL USES OF 



frames is inclosed in an air-tight recess, and all that is required is to 

 draw out the nets every morning and fill them with fresh flowers, which 

 give their aroma to the two surfaces with which they are in contact. This 

 system saves the waste and labour resulting from having to pick the 

 old flowers from the surface of the grease, and produces also a finer 

 fragrance. 



Oil and Pomade Frames. 



A very curious pneumatic apparatus for the same purpose has been 

 invented by M. Piner, the eminent Parisian perfumer, who submitted 

 to the jury a plan of it at the last International Exhibition in London. 

 It consists of a series of perforated plates, supporting flowers placed 

 alternately with sheets of glass overlaid with grease, in a chamber 

 through which a current of air is made to pass several times, until all 

 the scent of the flowers becomes fixed into the grease. 



A no less remarkable invention is that of M. Millon, a French 

 chemist, who found means to extract the aroma of flowers by placing 

 them in a percolating apparatus and pouring over them some ether or 

 sulphuret of carbon, which is drawn off a few minutes after, and carries 

 with it all the fragrant molecules. It is afterwards distilled to dryness 

 and the result obtained is a solid waxy mass, possessing the scent of the 

 flower in its purest and most concentrated form. This process, although 

 very ingenious, has not received any practical ajmlication as yet, owing 

 to the expense attending it, some of these concrete essences costing as 

 much as 50/. an eunce. 



Grasse, Cannes, and Nice are the principal towns where the macera- 

 tion and absorption processes are carried on. Since Nice has become 

 French, its manufactures have much increased, for it is admirably situated 

 for producing all flowers for perfumery purposes, and its violets in par- 

 ticular are superior to any other. 



The following are approximate quantities and values of the 



