Sachets
The scent sachets are composed of a number of substances of pleasant odor together and reduced to powder, sometimes even to be incised before melting them. These aromatic species being contained in sachets are carried in the pocket.
If instead of sachets one fills small pillow-shaped mattresses this is called "sultans". They are used to garnish the interior of small chests in which one puts linen to take there the odor of the aromatic substances.
SACHET POWDERS
A great variety of Sachet Powders may be made by adding to an Aromatic Base composed of Ground Roots, Barks, Woods, Flowers, Leaves, etc. Bulk Perfumes or Essential Oils. A few formulas for the best selling powders are given here and others may be made in the same general way.
General Base for Sachet Powder
- 1 pound Orris Root in coarse powder
- 4 ounces Santal Wood ground
- 1 ounce Vanilla Beans, ground or cut fine
- 6 ounces Rose Leaves flowers, ground
- 1/2 ounce Extract Musk
- 1/2 ounce Extract Civet
Mix them well together. To make any variety of Sachet Powder, add to 8 ounces of this 1 ounce of the Bulk Perfume, of the kind desired and mix them thoroughly.
Rose Sachets
Sachet au Cypre
These are small masses essentially composed of powdered charcoal and aromatic substances that emit fragrant fumes during combustion, with the addition of sufficient nitre or saltpetre to cause them to slowly consume away, without flame, when kindled. Their common form is that of a small cone with a triangular or tripod base, of about 7/8 to 1 inch in height, and about 1/2 inch diameter at the larger part. This form is most simply and conveniently given them by pressing the mass, whilst soft, into a mould of lead or porcelain.
The dry ingredients should be first reduced to fine powder, and the balsams and essential oils (if any) being added, the whole should be thoroughly and perfectly incorporated, after which the mixture should be beaten to the consistence of a stiff ductile mass or dough with the liquid ordered for the purpose.
When powdered gum is one of the ingredients, the mass should be beaten up with water; but otherwise mucilage must be employed. Gum-tragacanth, owing to its greater thickening and binding powers, is here generally preferred to gum-arabic.
The charcoal of the light woods, as the linden, willow, and alder, make the best pastils; that of the first being most esteemed for this purpose in France. The following receipts are among the best that can be made, and will serve as examples of these articles, from which the operator will be able to devise others.
There is no doubt whatever that the origin of the use of pastils, or pastilles, as they are more often called, from the French, has been derived from the use of incense at the altars of the temples during the religious services:--"According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot (Zacharias') was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord." (Luke 1:9.) "And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense.... And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning when he dresseth the lamps, and at even when he lighteth the lamps he shall burn incense upon it." (Exodus 30.)
An analogous practice is in use to the present day in the Roman Catholic churches, but, instead of being consumed upon an altar, the incense is burned in a censer, as doubtless many of our readers have seen. "As soon as the signal was given by the chief priest the incense was kindled, the holy place was filled with perfume, and the congregation without joined in prayers." (_Carpenters Temple service of the Hebrews._)
"On the walls of every temple in Egypt, from Meroee to Memphis, the censer is depicted smoking before the presiding deity of the place; on the walls of the tombs glow in bright colors the preparation of spices and perfumes." In the British Museum there is a vase (No. 2595) the body of which is intended to contain a lamp, the sides being perforated to admit the heat from the flame to act upon the projecting tubes; which are intended to contain ottos of flowers placed in the small vases at the end of the tubes; the heat volatilizes the ottos, and quickly perfumes an apartment. This vase or censer is from an Egyptian catacomb.
Man's first incenses
Man's first idea of perfume started with incense, and was accidentally discovered centuries ago when man in gathering wood to use in his burnt offerings found that some bushes or woods gave-off a pleasant odor when burning. Of these he discovered Frankincense and Myrrh and Benzoin which exists as gums or sap in trees, and in Sandalwood, Cinnamon and Patchouli. In order to be easier understood, it might be well to try to classify the Incenses according to their ingredients and in their particular services in which they are used.
The Censer.
The Censer, as used in the "holy places," is made either of brass, German silver, or the precious metals; its form somewhat resembles a saucer and an inverted cup, which latter is perforated, to allow the escape of the perfume. In the outer saucer is placed an inner one of copper, which can be taken out and filled with ignited charcoal. When in use, the ignited carbon is placed in the censer, and is then covered with the incense; the heat rapidly volatilizes it in visible fumes. The effect is assisted by the incense-bearer swinging the censer, attached to three long chains, in the air. The manner of swinging the censer varies slightly in the churches in Rome, in France, and in England, some holding it above the head. At LA MADELEINE the method is always to give the censer a full swing at the greatest length of the chains with the right hand, and to catch it up short with the left hand.
Several samples of "incense prepared for altar service," as sent out by Mr. Martin, of Liverpool, appear to be nothing more than gum olibanum, of indifferent quality, and not at all like the composition as especially commanded by God, the form for which is given in full in Exodus.
Incense Mixtures
The pastils of the moderns are really but a very slight modification of the incense of the ancients. For many years they were called Osselets of Cyprus. In the old books on pharmacy a certain mixture of the then known gum-resins was called Suffitus, which being thrown upon hot ashes produced a vapor which was considered to be salutary in many diseases. It is under the same impression that pastils are now used, or at least to cover the mal odeur of the sick-chamber.
A great variety of formulae have been published for the manufacture of pastils; nine-tenths of them contain some woods or bark, or aromatic seeds. Now, when such substances are burned, the chemist knows that if the ligneous fibre contained in them undergoes combustion--the slow combustion--materials are produced which have far from a pleasant odor; in fact, the smell of burning wood predominates over the volatilized aromatic ingredients; it is for this reason alone that charcoal is used in lieu of other substances.
The use of charcoal in a pastil is merely for burning, producing, during its combustion, the heat required to quickly volatilize the perfuming material with which it is surrounded. The product of the combustion of charcoal is inodorous, and therefore does not in any way interfere with the fragrance of the pastil. Such is, however, not the case with any ingredients that may be used that are not in themselves perfectly volatile by the aid of a small increment of heat. If combustion takes place, which is always the case with all the aromatic woods that are introduced into pastils, we have, besides the volatilized otto which the wood contains, all the compounds naturally produced by the slow burning of ligneous matter, spoiling the true odor of the other ingredients volatilized.
There are, it is true, certain kinds of fumigation adopted occasionally where these products are the materials sought. By such fumigation, as when brown paper is allowed to smoulder (undergo slow combustion) in a room for the purpose of covering bad smells. By the quick combustion of tobacco, that is, combustion with flame, there is no odor developed, but by its slow combustion, according to the method adopted by those who indulge in "the weed," the familiar aroma, "the cloud," is generated, and did not exist ready formed in the tobacco.
Now a well-made pastil should not develop any odor of its own, but simply volatilize that fragrant matter, whatever it be, used in its manufacture. We think that the fourth formula given above carries out that object. It does not follow that the formulae that are here given produce at all times the odor that is most approved; it is evident that in pastils, as with other perfumes, a great deal depends upon taste. Many persons very much object to the aroma of benzoin, while they greatly admire the fumes of cascarilla.
Pastilles de Serail, or Pastilles of the Harem
THE PERFUME LAMP.
Shortly after the discovery of the peculiar property of spongy platinum remaining incandescent in the vapor of alcohol, the late Mr. I. Deck, of Cambridge, made a very ingenious application of it for the purpose of perfuming apartments. An ordinary spirit lamp is filled with Eau de Cologne, and "trimmed" with a wick in the usual manner. Over the centre of the wick, and standing about the eighth of an inch above it, a small ball of spongy platinum is placed, maintained in its position by being fixed to a thin glass rod, which is inserted into the wick.
Thus arranged, the lamp is to be lighted and allowed to burn until the platinum becomes red hot; the flame may then be blown out, nevertheless the platinum remains incandescent for an indefinite period. The proximity of a red-hot ball to a material of the physical quality of Eau de Cologne, diffused over a surface of cotton wick, as a matter of course causes its rapid evaporation, and as a consequence the diffusion of odor.
Instead of the lamp being charged with Eau de Cologne, we may use Eau de Portugal, verveine, or any other spirituous essence. Several perfumers make a particular mixture for this purpose, which is called EAU A BRULER. Persons who are in the habit of using the perfume lamps will, however frequently observe that, whatever difference there may be in the composition of the fluid introduced into the lamp, there is a degree of similarity in the odor of the result when the platinum is in action. This arises from the fact, that so long as there is the vapor of alcohol, mixed with oxygen-air, passing over red-hot platinum, certain definite products always result, namely, acetic acid, aldehyde, and acetal, which are formed more or less and impart a peculiar and rather agreeable fragrance to the vapor, but which overpowers any other odor.
POTPOURRI
The aromatic spices are still used for another fragrance that is called potpourri or "rotten pot". To compose it, we take a lot of dry aromatic good scent and we mix together. They are put in a pot and sprinkled with a certain amount of water in which cooking salt is melted. These ingredients ferment together as they develop at the same time, and when they are well made it is difficult to smell the odor of each particular herb, which salt is used to prevent these from becoming spoiled.
Pot Pouri for Rose Jars Mixtures of Rose Leaves, etc, for filling Rose Jars are now considerably used. A favorite mixture for this purpose is as follows:
- 1 pound Rose Leaves Flowers, whole
- 4 ounces Patchouly Leaves
- 4 ounces Violet Flowers
- 1/2 ounce Vanilla, cut fine
- 4 ounces Orris Root, in coarse powder
- 1/2 ounce Cinnamon, in coarse powder
- 1/2 ounce Allspice, in coarse powder
- 1/4 ounce Cloves, in coarse powder
- 1/2 ounce Oil Bergamot
- 1 ounce Musk Extract
Mix the Oil and Musk Extract thoroughly with the powdered drugs, and then with the Leaves, etc. By grinding the Leaves, etc, to a coarse powder, this may be used as a Sachet Powder, other combinations may be made in the same manner by using other flowers, etc, in combination as Lavender, Vetiver, etc.
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