Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical IndustriesSlosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Science
Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries
Slosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Chemistry, Technical
The real vanilla flavor, vanillin, was made by Tiemann in 1874. At first
it sold for nearly $800 a pound, but now it may be had for $10. How
extensively it is now used in chocolate, ice cream, soda water, cakes
and the like we all know. It should be noted that cumarin and vanillin,
however they may be made, are not imitations, but identical with the
chief constituent of the tonka and vanilla beans and, of course, are
equally wholesome or harmless. But the nice palate can distinguish a
richer flavor in the natural extracts, for they contain small quantities
of other savory ingredients.
A true perfume consists of a large number of odoriferous chemical
compounds mixed in such proportions as to produce a single harmonious
effect upon the sense of smell in a fine brand of perfume may be
compounded a dozen or twenty different ingredients and these, if they
are natural essences, are complex mixtures of a dozen or so distinct
substances. Perfumery is one of the fine arts. The perfumer, like the
orchestra leader, must know how to combine and cooerdinate his
instruments to produce a desired sensation. A Wagnerian opera requires
103 musicians. A Strauss opera requires 112. Now if the concert manager
wants to economize he will insist upon cutting down on the most
expensive musicians and dropping out some of the others, say, the
supernumerary violinists and the man who blows a single blast or tinkles
a triangle once in the course of the evening. Only the trained ear will
detect the difference and the manager can make more money.
Suppose our mercenary impresario were unable to get into the concert
hall of his famous rival. He would then listen outside the window and
analyze the sound in this fashion: "Fifty per cent. of the sound is made
by the tuba, 20 per cent. by the bass drum, 15 per cent. by the 'cello
and 10 per cent. by the clarinet. There are some other instruments, but
they are not loud and I guess if we can leave them out nobody will know
the difference." So he makes up his orchestra out of these four alone
and many people do not know the difference.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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