h a l f b a k e r yThe mutter of invention.
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I've also often thought a smell-capturing device would be fun. [+] |
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not quite sure if you would get enough of the smell this way. many compounds are "smellable" at parts per million levels making getting a significant number of them in the box hard. More like a smell-o-vac would be necessary compressing vast quantities of the gas to produce tiny volumes of "pure smell". Many "pure smells" would be fatal to waft. Easier more like to use a gas spectrophotometer and reconstruct the aroma in the lab. |
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Don't open Panodor's box. |
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If this works, then could I remove all the water and alcohol from wine, and box the remaining sediment? Simply add again to enjoy? |
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The captured chemicals are going to be subject to all sorts of decay effects like oxidation and hydrolysation. |
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Better to have a "synthetic nose" that analyses the constituents, and can then produce an electronic "noseprint" allowing the original odour to be recreated using a library of basic smell chemicals, rather like the way a printer can re-create a passable colour image using only four inks. |
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I did exactly this for my honours project, in 1995. I drew air first through activated carbon to remove existing odours, then through a chamber containing a mouse, then through a glass U-tube immersed in liquid nitrogen where the smells were captured. I was able to make little vials of eau de souris. I used this to monitor the response of mosquitoes to odour in the absence of other cues, such as carbon dioxide, heat, and vision. |
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..and did it smell of mouse? |
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I used to keep mice, and pretty much anything which has been in contact with mice smells of mouse.
As do things which may then come into contact with that. |
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I remember a show called "Men in White". In one episode, one of the aforementioned extracted the smell of rotting fish using ethanol. He said he was extracting odourous molecules with interesting names like putrecine. It was for warding off traffic wardens. |
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For some smells, ethanol extraction might be better, and certainly easier than packing a flask of liquid nitrogen around. |
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I always thought putrecine was in the same group as ethanoic acid (along with cadavarine). They are a few carbons up from butanoic acid - the sickly taste in Parmesan. |
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//..and did it smell of mouse?// Yes, it did. I probably could have used other methods, but I wanted to capture what the mice gave off into the air, rather than the smells they leave on surfaces by contact etc. Also it was a good excuse to mess about with liquid nitrogen. |
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//it was a good excuse to mess about with liquid nitrogen//
You need an excuse? |
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This gives me an excuse to link to an evil intelligence agency obviously years ahead of its time, then.
[link] |
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