Examentrainers

With a pong¹ in my art

Is it possible to bottle nostalgia? Paul Wilkinson sniffs out a man with a remarkable nose for buisiness - recreating atmospheric smells for shops, museums and visitor centres

1		How many times have we
		wished we could package
		that unique aroma of sea
		air or the smell of newlymown
		grass? Frank Knight has done
		exactly that. In fact, he can recreate the
		scent of just about anything, from
		sweet peas to sweaty socks.
2		Knight is the man behind the waft
		of fresh bread at your supermarket
		bakery and the musty dungeon effluvia
		of a millennium of history at Warwick
		Castle. “Retailers have taken smells out
		of shops by packaging everything,”
		says Knight, 58. “We are accused of
		tempting people to buy products, but
		it’s about putting back the smells we
		have lost.”
3		“Smell is a very important sense,”
		says Knight. “Without it, most animals				“I did a lot of research on the internet,
		would not survive. It’s a very powerful				looking at embalming chemicals and
		sense, too. A smell will stay in your				the perfumes and creams they used to
		mind for a long time, yet it is hard to				wash down the body.
		describe. You ask anyone to give you a		8		[id:56933] we created a very eerie
		description of something and they				smell. My wife Linda does not like it at
		rarely tell you about the smell.”				all. There is a smell of death about it.”
4		His company, Dale Air, was		9		Recipes for his 400-plus aromas
		launched 30 years ago by Fred Dale, a				are a trade secret, [id:56934] I am allowed
		former business associate. He sold air				to see his mixing room; it is like a mad
		fresheners, designed to mask				scientist’s laboratory, with shelves of
		boarding-house pongs with artificial				bottled ingredients that have names
		fragrances such as Spring Fresh, to				such as de-palatinol A (a crucial
		Blackpool landladies.				constituent of coffee) and di-propylene
5		By chance, Fred met the people				glycol (the oil that carries the aroma).
		behind the Jorvik Centre, a tourist		10		Some smells are easy to create,
		attraction in York, which was planning				others are not. “I can do you a really
		to break the mould of visitor				good cappuccino, but straight black
		attractions with a brilliant new				coffee is the most difficult to
		interpretation of the Viking settlement				replicate,” says Knight. “The other
		beneath the city. Knight recalls: “They				tough one is bread. We do have a bread
		asked him, ‘If you can make nice				smell, but I don’t think it’s perfect. A
		smells, why can’t you make us some				lot of people buy it, though, and are
		bad ones, too?’ He produced the smell				happy.”
		of the midden² for them. It was the		11		Among his failures was North Sea
		first time a scent had been used in that				oil. The smell was convincing enough,
		way. In visitor attractions, we [id:56931].”				but health and safety officials, who
6		The business, which Knight took				check all his concoctions, said that it
		sole control of seven years ago, now				was potentially soporific.
		supplies heritage centres around the		12		Now Knight is branching out into
		world. The Natural History Museum in				the retail trade, impregnating pads
		London asked him to create “dinosaur				inside cubes similar to the one on my
		breath” – a combination of rotting				desk. On your next visit to a souvenir
		meat and septic wounds – for its				shop, you may well be able to buy the
		working model of Tyrannosaurus Rex.				essence of the place you have just been
		In the New Zealand city of Auckland, a				to. It will sell for about £3 and last for
		recreation of Captain Scott’s Antarctic				up to a year.
		base for his attempt on the South Pole		13		Knight also does presentation
		has the smell of pack ponies and				boxes of four aromas. His soccer set
		leather harnesses.				comprises: Pitch – a hint of earth;
7		Knight was even asked to speculate				Trophy Room – the polish of display
		on the aroma of an Egyptian mummy				cabinets; Changing Room – a whoosh
		for a display in a Swedish castles				of liniment; and Half Time – the smell
		“Apparently, in the Middle Ages				of pies. Hmm, I can now smell them
		mummies were regarded as protection				whenever I like.
		against the Black Death,” he says.

Jorvik Centre, www.jorvik-vikingcentre.co.uk (01904 543403)
National Railway Museum, www.nrm.org.uk (01904621261)
Yorkshire Tourist Board, www.yorkshirevisitor.com

noot 1 pong: an unpleasant smell
noot 2 midden: a pile of waste matter / een mesthoop