Smell Museums

 

Summary: Smell museums are both an idea for an educational toy, and an actual museum where people can go around to smell exotic and unusual herbs, fragrances and other smells, and also learn about smell (the botany, chemistry, physiology, psychology, etc.)  A goal for the museums would be that nonprofits from various cities would underwrite the funding of the museum, and then derive profits relative to their investment (roughly a stock/dividend arrangement.)

 

The Toy

Smell Museums ^TM, would be collections of little cylindrical vials containing scented materials like spices, perfume essences plus ten empty vials with labels so children can collect them from around the house.

The concept is to sell a kit of twenty exotic smells, along with ten empty vials that kids can use to collect smells from at home, (spices, their mom’s perfumes, etc.)  Extra add-on kits are sold, and kids are encouraged to swap them. There is even a fancy teakwood version for executives in their cubicles. (A commercial shows an executive, idly sniffing a few vials as he talks on the phone.) 

An adult version would be for the busy executive who wants to take a nasal vacation while he or she is on the phone.

Another spinoff would be a kit for girls/women to make their own simple perfumes.

 

 

The Museum or ‘Aromatorium’

People could go around to different rooms and smell all kinds of interesting scents, from spices to perfumes to flowers. The museum would also be educational, with rooms devoted to the chemistry of smells, the geography of where spices and other fragrances came from, the physiology of the nose and smelling, and botany, too. Studying the exhibits, and going out into “fresh air halls” would give people’s noses a rest.

We can imagine nonprofit charities that are “supercharities” could using the museum as an investment. A group would ask their supporters to buy shares in the museum and then let the charity hold them.




Status: A prototype of the toy smell museum has been created. Some children immediately wanted them.



Plans and Needs: Some research needs to be done into allergic responses, and the legal implications. With some first aid available and warnings to asthmatics, the risks should be minimized.



Potential Impact: A source of funding for nonprofits. A sensory experience that would help ground people who are more and more detached from nature.