Category:
Smells and Odors
Smells and Odors
Olfactory Art Keller
A small new gallery in NYC that features smell exhibits.Read about it here.
Their homepage.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 07, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Museums, Smells and Odors
Hand-Sniffing After Handshakes
Research by biologists Noam Sobel and Idan Frumin reveals that after a handshake people frequently lift their hand to their nose and sniff it. The researchers hypothesize that this is to smell the body odor of the other person.As described by Sarah Everts in her recent book The Joy of Sweat:
Sobel also conducted a fascinating experiment with his graduate student Idan Frumin to see what people did with their hands after a handshake. Their team secretly videotaped people after they shook the hand of someone new, someone they had just met for the first time. Here's their delicious discovery: A few seconds after the handshake, the experimental subjects would inevitably sniff their own hands, to gain some odorous information about the new person.
"When we showed them the videos, many of the subjects were completely shocked and disbelieving," Frumin told me. "Some thought we had doctored the videos - not that we had the computing power or the expertise to do so."
. . . When Frumin now goes to conferences, he sometimes stands back and watches people unconsciously sniffing. "Sometimes I catch myself doing it too. People tell me I've ruined handshakes for them, that they've become very self-conscious about shaking hands, especially with me."
"When we showed them the videos, many of the subjects were completely shocked and disbelieving," Frumin told me. "Some thought we had doctored the videos - not that we had the computing power or the expertise to do so."
. . . When Frumin now goes to conferences, he sometimes stands back and watches people unconsciously sniffing. "Sometimes I catch myself doing it too. People tell me I've ruined handshakes for them, that they've become very self-conscious about shaking hands, especially with me."
The Weizmann Institute has more info. Sobel and Frumin's article about their research is in the journal eLife Sciences.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 08, 2021 -
Comments (6)
Category: Science, Experiments, Smells and Odors
Follies of the Madmen #508
Was this really ever a problem?
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 07, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Annoying Things, Business, Advertising, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, 1940s, Smells and Odors, Moral Panics and Public Hysteria
Best Scents for Sexual Arousal
The article dates from 1997 (The Daily Herald Chicago, Illinois 21 Aug 1997, Thu Page 97), but an actual scientific paper from the same people was posted in 2014. If any WU-vie can cite more recent reasearch, please do so!
Posted By: Paul - Sun May 16, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: 1990s, Twenty-first Century, Smells and Odors, Sex
Avoid Undie Odor
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, the marketing team for Lux soap repeatedly warned consumers that if they didn't wash their clothes everyday, they risked having "undie odor". Some details from Suellen Hoy in her book Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness:Lever Brothers, the makers of Rinso, Lifebuoy, and Lux soap, revised its advertising copy over the years to reflect the changing cultural meanings of soap itself... In 1916, Lux was "a wonderful new product" for "laundering fine fabrics:; by the mid-twenties it could also preserve "soft, youthful, lovely feminine hands" and, by the early thirties, prevent "undie odor" as well—"She never omits her Daily Bath, yet she wears underthings a SECOND DAY."
Francis Countway, the president of Lever Brothers and the individual most responsible for the "discovery" of body odors and the "stop smelling" ad pitch, was inspired by Listerine's successful advertising campaign against the previously unknown halitosis. Countway and his associates admitted, while Lever Brothers' business boomed, that they cared little "about the opinions of softies who think that the Body and Undie Odor copy is disgusting." They were simply doing their job, "bringing cleanliness into a dirty world."
Francis Countway, the president of Lever Brothers and the individual most responsible for the "discovery" of body odors and the "stop smelling" ad pitch, was inspired by Listerine's successful advertising campaign against the previously unknown halitosis. Countway and his associates admitted, while Lever Brothers' business boomed, that they cared little "about the opinions of softies who think that the Body and Undie Odor copy is disgusting." They were simply doing their job, "bringing cleanliness into a dirty world."
Lux soap was also responsible for the "undies are gossips" campaign.
Wilmington Evening Journal - Feb 9, 1932
Kansas City Star - Apr 24, 1940
Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 08, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Hygiene, Advertising, Underwear, 1930s, Smells and Odors
Breath Deflector
In case your bed partner has bad breath.Patented in 1922 by Darwin Comings of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 07, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Furniture, Inventions, Patents, Sleep and Dreams, 1920s, Smells and Odors
The Stasi Scent Library
The East German Stasi did a number of strange things, but perhaps the strangest was its attempt to create a scent library of its population. It was analogous to a fingerprint library, and was based on the premise that everyone had a unique scent which could be used to track them, if need be. From Dog Law Reporter:The most interesting use of police dogs concerned scent identification, a method analyzed by Dutch and other researchers, but adapted by the unique paranoia of the Stasi. As early as 1973, the Stasi began collecting smell samples of a large number of citizens. Sometimes this was done with a special chair that the subject was asked to sit on during a visit to the police station. The chair had a dust cloth on top of the seat that was clamped into place by a removable frame. The subject had to sit in the chair for ten minutes, but after the interrogation was over, the dust cloth was removed and stored in a glass jar.
Sometimes Stasi officials did not bother with being subtle and merely told subjects to put a cloth under their armpits or even under their pants in the groin area. The cloth was carefully handled by tweezers in an effort not to allow contamination by other human scents.
Sometimes Stasi officials did not bother with being subtle and merely told subjects to put a cloth under their armpits or even under their pants in the groin area. The cloth was carefully handled by tweezers in an effort not to allow contamination by other human scents.
Stasi Smelling Jars
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 23, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Smells and Odors
Organoleptic analysis
Odd job: the FDA employs people to smell fish in order to determine if it's decomposed. They refer to this as "organoleptic analysis".There are four categories with fish. "The first is fresh. That's the way fish are right after they are caught. Then there is number one. That's the commercial grade. Most seafood should be number one. It may not smell fresh, but it's not decomposed.
"The next is number two. That means slight decomposition. Whether the fish is all right depends on the product. The criteria are based on percentages. And last is number three, the really bad ones. Definitely decomposed. Number three is so putrid and stinky you wouldn't want to eat it."
"The next is number two. That means slight decomposition. Whether the fish is all right depends on the product. The criteria are based on percentages. And last is number three, the really bad ones. Definitely decomposed. Number three is so putrid and stinky you wouldn't want to eat it."
The article I'm getting the info from was published in 1978, but I'm assuming the FDA must still employ people to smell fish. Unless they've got a fancy gadget to do it now.
Detroit Free Press - Jul 18, 1978
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 24, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Jobs and Occupations, Fish, Smells and Odors
Swiss Air Deluxe
Swiss Air Deluxe is Swiss air in a can. The makers promise that it offers a variety of health benefits. For instance, "airways and lungs will recover," "improves your blood values," "gives you energy for excercises, studies and work," and "much better potency and virility."
Recently, the makers of this stuff added a new product: Swiss Virgin. This is Alpine air "enriched with the lovely smell of real Swiss virgins who are living on the mountains." They add, "The sexy underwear is inside the can !"
Apparently, Swiss Air Deluxe is mostly sold in Asia. For which reason, a few months ago it was awarded the "Devil's Stone" Award, which is a satirical prize given annually to the most absurd freight-shipped product.
A representative from the company actually showed up to accept the prize, but defended the product, arguing, "We take advantage of unused spaces on transport boats when they return to Asia, so our ecological footprint is close to zero."
For some reason, Swiss Air Deluxe's website is currently down. But you can check out the cached version. And their product video below.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 28, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Products, Smells and Odors
Odor-based Alarms
Alex's recent run of Weird Patents reminded me of the attempts to base an alarm device on smells.Here's one that seems to have gone nowhere.
And another.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 31, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Annoying Things, Inventions, Twenty-first Century, Smells and Odors
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |