Scent Distiller Experiment No.1

Today I finally got started with the experimentation of the scent distiller machine. I gathered a few materials and objects that has a distinctive and strong smell to start off the experiment because they have it will be easier to start with. I am also planning to try out with other objects that are not dealt with on our everyday life basis, or smells that will make people curious and wonder. Smells that will be categorised into different sections, and objects that are different be it a fruit, a flower, paper or even hair.

To make sure that the water will not sip through the opening of the condenser, I taped the rubber tube onto the condenser. In this way, water will not escape that easily and constant water will run through and not obstruct the experiment process.

At first, I struggled quite a little with the placement of the distiller. It was no where near the tap for input of water source, also the tube was not long enough. Hence some fine tuning and adjustment was made before conducting the experiment. 

The input of room temperature water from the tap and a small pail to collect the "wasted" water at the other end of the condenser which will be flushed out through the tube.

I tested out the experiment with a few objects that has a distinctive smell that is almost recognisable by anyone because it is commonly found in our daily activities. Objects that has stronger smell will determine if the distiller works well, hence I tried out lavender flowers, coffee and earl grey tea leaves. 

Firstly, pour clean water into the boiling flask and fill it up at the half mark, place the object with smell into the flask and then switch on the heat source which in this case is the fire stove. Once the water in the flask starts boiling, switch on the tap so that room temperature water will run through the condenser. The point of using cold water is to allow the gas formed in the boiling flask to pass through the condenser and change into liquid state. This way, the liquid collected at the other end will be pure with no impurities but has the exact smell. Once collected, I transferred the liquid into the glass bottles.

The collecting point where the liquid passed through the condenser settles. The coffee and earl grey tea also worked perfectly, I did try out with milo powder as well but it sort of got burnt at the bottom of the flask and stained the flask. Which I learned that powder formed objects is not something good to deal with in this experiment. So far, I managed to retrieve three colourless liquid that has the exact same smell as the object tested (collected).

From the experiment, I've made a few observations and learning points which will be useful if indicated in the manual for users:

• Water in the boiling flask should be filled till at least the halfway mark so that the water inside will not run dry so fast and the user do not have to keep refilling which will take a longer time to boil because both liquids are of different temperature
• Best to run on low heat once water is boiled, however it will be a slow process to retrieve scent liquid
• Tube connected to the tap and input into condenser should be attached to a high angle so that water can flow down stream which is easier that having water to flow upstream which will require more pressure which slows down the process of condensation in the condenser
• Controlling of the fire source is important because water should not be boiled too vigorously and rise too high that will allow the unsure substance in the flask to sip into the condenser which will not allow contents in the condenser to be pure  

A few more experiments will be done over these few weeks, so that by assessment I would be able to have a scent library that would serve as inspirations for designers.