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December 5, 2012

Music to the Nose: An Instrument You Smell

Matt Novak, Pacific Standard


AP Photo

The June 1922 issue of Science and Invention magazine featured a rather peculiar invention which envisioned an entirely new (and entirely silent) kind of concert. The invention was based on the theories of Dr. Septimus Piesse, a French chemist and perfumer who wrote the 1857 book The Art of Perfumery. Piesse often used music as a way to talk about how certain smells could work together.

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TAGGED: history, musical instruments, smell, olfaction

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