A PODCAST FROM IMMORTAL PERFUMES
The Scent
Archive
Curious histories, bottled
EP 02 - APRIL 29, 2026
THE DOCTOR AND THE ATOMIZER
How a Civil War veteran in Toledo accidentally invented the perfume atomizer
Dr. Allen DeVilbiss was sick of shoving goose grease down his patients' throats to treat infections. So he built the first atomizer in his Toledo shed from an oil can and a rubber ball. His son Thomas turned this medical device into Art Deco masterpieces that would change how America wore perfume.
YOUR HOST
JT Siems
PERFUME HISTORIAN · EDUCATOR · WRITER
JT Siems is the founder of Immortal Perfumes, a Seattle-based literary micro-perfumery. Obsessed with history, she is a perfume historian, educator, writer, and international award-winning perfumer.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: HOUDINI'S FINAL SÉANCE
Today we whisper a final goodnight to Harry Houdini as we discuss the tradition of Houdini séances that have taken place continuously since his death on Halloween night of 1926. Tune in on Halloween for a special episode about the Blood Countess.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: THE WITCH OF LIME STREET VS HOUDINI
Margery the Medium used the ghost of her dead brother Walter to conduct her séances. When Scientific American Magazine put forth a contest with a $2500 prize for any medium who could produce verifiable psychic phenomena , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle recommended her. Harry Houdini was not having it and made it his mission to expose Margery as a fraud.
STORICAL FOOTNOTES: MADAME BESS HOUDINI
In today’s episode, we’re going to give voice to Bess Houdini a performer and magician in her own right, who like many women was eclipsed by her husband’s ambition. Tune in to learn all the magical details about Bess’ life before and after Harry.
HARRY HOUDINI: THE MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS
If you hear the name Houdini and just think of the David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel school of magicians, that is to say campy and old fashioned, I’m here to blow your mind with espionage, Sherlock Holmes, the Romanovs, and more psychics than you can count! Buckle up dear listeners and imagine yourself in a dark room, hands clasped around the séance table as a series of unearthly raps starts tapping out a message from beyond the grave as we dive into the life of Harry Houdini, Master Mystifier.