A long-lost perfume got a second life after 150 years underwater

The GC/MC trace is an immutable record of the exact molecular composition (up to the capabilities of the GC/MS, some compounds may fall outside of its analysis range, but the Agilent 5975C shown in the images paired with the matching 7980A can measure pretty much anything you can smell), the trouble that these perfumers have is that you can no longer easily source the chemical compounds.

Furthermore, from what I understand, only a few microliters were removed from the bottle and it was resealed, so it is not like the sample is lost to time, and it is probably better preserved now that it is being stored in a museum than sitting on the seafloor.

I will be honest I am not thrilled that the contents are being kept a secret and used to sell overpriced perfume, but in general I am all for people reproducing relics if it means more people can be experience them!

This perfume is probably not even legal anymore. EU passed legislation to regulate fragrance materials 5 years ago, a bunch of materials got banned which forced major perfume houses to reformulate many classic scents with new materials for compliance. A keen "nose" can probably get something relatively close with synthetic alternatives.

It seems it's not the same ship: Celeste <> Celestia. Both related to the sky, but not quite the same word. Not sure about English (both ships look like named in this language) but I associate celeste with the color (sky blue, light blue) and celestia with firmament or heavens.

Well it comes out the other end, not spit up like a hair ball.

Articles Of Interest (a 99 Percent Invisible spinoff podcast) had an episode where they smell ambergris and describe it.

Avery Trufelman (the host) described it as 'like looking at a landscape through a pinhole'

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/perfume-articles-of-i...

Edit: There's an even better description from Barbara Herman - "Some people say there’s tobacco notes. There’s obviously a very, animalic kind of fecal quality to it, but also slightly metallic and coumarin or hay-like, slightly sweet. It’s more of a feeling than it is a smell for me. It’s just like being enveloped in warmth."

Usually an air line, or a fan.

Chemical ones are way more difficult than physical ones, so I guess among the three, the archive of touch will show up earlier than others. Both smell and taste involves complicated bio-chemical process which thus involves hard engineering problems.

Similar to this, movie theaters want to provides more detail of the film as a non-replaceable experience to customers. So far what they can do are no more than shaking chairs according to actions scenes.

I would love to know what food tasted like 100 or 1,000 years ago. It was probably gross and horrible for most of humanity back then, so perhaps narrow the sample to whatever the 1% were eating. Though I probably don't really know what the 1% are eating now, so maybe it's comparing two impossible things..