What creates that fragrance of magic; it’s the Smellitzer. Really!

As every visitor very quickly learns, a walk around any Disney park will affect every one of your five senses. But it is the "smells" of Disney that sort of sneak up on you; and meant to be that way by design.

Welcome to those of you joining me from COLORADO MOUNTAIN MOM and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the Final stop on our Magical Blogorail." 

Smells matter in a Disney Park. Maybe it's a feeling of hunger when you first pass under the Train Station onto Main Street U.S.A. to the aroma of fresh popcorn; or down the block approaching the Main Street Bakery catching a whiff of just baked cookies. Perhaps it's your smile when orange groves pass below you as you soar over California; or when you cover your nose from the Stink Bug attack watching It's Tough to be a Bug.

There are any number of times when we think we're the ones making the decision to enter certain areas at Walt Disney World, when it's the aroma prompting your direction. Or the uncertainty being generated while completely enveloped in the realistic experience of sight, sound and boiler-room odor in the queue approaching the elevators in The Tower of Terror.

But what is really happening, results from the invention filed under United States Patent Number 4,603,030 by Disney Imagineer Bob McCarthy.

The Scent-Emitting Systems: A system for emitting, in sequence, a plurality of different scents includes a plurality of holders for scent-bearing chips; a mechanism for propelling these scents from a system; a mechanism for conveying, selectively, any desired scent holder into operative relation with the propelling mechanism; and a mechanism for actuating the propelling mechanism to propel scent from any desired scent holder in response to a programmed, predetermined sequence of scents of predetermined duration.

And you thought Rome was really burning in Spaceship Earth; and not that howitzer-type air cannon helping us understand civilization's movement into the Dark Ages.

In one pre-Epcot publication, there is a description of the development process used by Disney to include real-life smells as part of the new theme park.

WED designers are collecting scents from suppliers all over the world and blending them to produce the desired effect... more than 3,000 will be tested before the final choices are made.  The smellitzer operates like an air cannon, aiming the scent up to 200 feet across a room toward an exhaust system.  Guests traveling on the moving vehicles will pass through the scene as the appropriate scent drifts across their path.   Regulated by computer, the scent can be triggered for a fresh aroma just prior to each vehicle's arrival.

You would think you just need an aroma and a fan, but as this drawing from the Patent Application illustrates, it's quite a complex mechanical system contributing to the process.

Anyway, many of the smells in Disney Parks will just lightly hang in the background while others seem to hit you right in the proboscis (your schnoz). You'll just have to consider the next time your nose awakens a special feeling inside of you, is it real or is it Smellitzer.

Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Red this month. We will be back Friday, September 21st with an all new theme. Keep checking in with our blogs in between loops to keep up to date with our Disney info, photos and stories. If you are looking for more Disney magic, you can make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our members and their blogs, as well as all our previous loops.

  

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Growing Up Disney

2nd Stop ~ My Dream’sOf Disney

3rd Stop ~ DisneyDonna Kay

4th Stop ~ ColoradoMountain Mom

Final Stop ~ A WorldView

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What creates that fragrance of magic; it’s the Smellitzer. Really!