Pages turned by blood- or berry-stained fingers. How many have held this book before me? Where has it been hidden? Whom has it saved? How has it. Yet in it there is a gleam of recognition: old-book smell. Some people love it; some decidedly do not.
An internet search returns candles, incense, home fragrances, body lotions, and perfumes all claiming to re-create the intimate atmosphere of a cozy reading nook or the leather and mahogany elegance of a splendidly appointed study. There are even scents inspired by specific authors.
I received the tangerine, juniper, and clove of a Charles Dickens candle as a gift from my mother. Fanciful connotations aside, our sense of smell can trigger powerful emotions, memories, and reactions.
Then maybe it started on weekend visits to your neighborhood library. Olfactory sensations can ignite intense responses and can influence mood, productivity, cognitive function, and physical actions. Smell is often used as a marketing tool to boost brand identity and to motivate consumers: retail stores, casinos, and hotels regularly employ high-powered misting machines and other diffusing systems to add ambient scents of coconut, citrus, or green tea to their spaces.
Balsam, clove, and cranberry are popular artificial environmental fragrances used during the holiday shopping season. Realtors rely on the aromas of simmering spices or baking bread to inspire warm, welcoming feelings in potential home buyers.
And, well, Cinnabon. Old books have a potent, unmistakable smell, but it can be a hard odor to describe. That may be because no two books smell exactly the same. The complex scent is actually an amalgamation of specific chemical markers of decay that combine with how a book was made and how and where it was stored and used by the people who have touched it.
In essence, when we breathe it in, we are simultaneously smelling the life—and the death—of a book. The paper, inks, and adhesives that make up a book contain hundreds of volatile organic compounds VOCs. As these components break down, VOCs are released into the air, and we detect them in the form of that distinctive odor.
New books release their own, very different VOCs. Inks, solvents, adhesives, bleaching agents, and other chemicals involved in modern manufacturing processes combine to produce the crisp, synthetic smell you notice when you snap open a freshly printed text, which, I suppose, can have its own appeal. Other variables are directly related to the habits of owners and how they used their books. Was someone snacking as they read? Did the reader spill wine, smoke a pipe, or sit fireside?
Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Marissa Laliberte , Reader's Digest. But why are we attracted to the way books smell? Specific scents remind us of a place or a moment in time we remember. Specific smells can inform us about the nature, history and physical state of an object—in this case, a book—and the time when that scent was absorbed.
The Historic Book Odour Wheel. Chemistry is essential for understanding why books emit certain scents. These chemicals become activated with a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. VOCs can be detected in increasing amounts as the materials that produce them begin to degrade. Papers will degrade at varying rates depending on the materials of which they are composed. Different materials will also produce different VOCs.
So what will new books printed today smell like years from now? Different than how old books smell today? Here comes chemistry to the rescue! The physical, actual, glorious, sensual pleasure of holding, smelling, communing with a book. But where do the different smells come from? Chemicals of course. This infographic from Compound Interest explores the science behind these novelty scents. So the next time someone comments on the smell of […].
Has anyone ever researched the correlation of the average cleanliness of a house in times when the tax returns need to be filed? And finally, and here I have got an answer, what causes the smell of new and old books? Existen […]. Maybe this is how the oft-quoted short attention span of online readers became common […].
Compound Interest. This subject constantly fascinates me. Previous posts are Smell of a book and Smell of a book, 2. And they have a button where you can download a larger copy of the infographic suitable for […].
Ik wel, van nieuwe boeken tenminste. Maar waar bestaat die geur nou precies uit? Deze infographic van Compound Interest legt het […]. The handy infographic below takes a look at what causes that book smell — both in old and new books.
There are definitely […]. There are […]. While it is difficult to pinpoint one particular compound that causes the scent, Compound Chemistry gives us a good idea of what combinations do create that old book smell. Benzaldehyde is supposed […]. Sweet smells come from toluene and ethyl benzene, and 2-ethyl hexanol produces a light floral fragrance.
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