author

C. (Carl) Deite

1838–1921

Best known for practical books on perfumery, soap, and cosmetics, this German technical writer turned specialized industrial know-how into clear, usable reference works. His surviving books still offer a vivid look at how beauty and household products were made in the late 19th century.

1 Audiobook

A practical treatise on the manufacture of perfumery : comprising directions for making all kinds of perfumes, sachet powders, fumigating materials, dentrifices, cosmetics, etc., etc., with a full account of the volatile oils, balsams, resins, and other natural and artificial perfume-substances, including the manufacture of fruit ethers, and tests of their purity

A practical treatise on the manufacture of perfumery : comprising directions for making all kinds of perfumes, sachet powders, fumigating materials, dentrifices, cosmetics, etc., etc., with a full account of the volatile oils, balsams, resins, and other natural and artificial perfume-substances, including the manufacture of fruit ethers, and tests of their purity

by C. (Carl) Deite

About the author

Carl Deite (1838–1921) is chiefly remembered as the author and editor of technical works on perfumery, soaps, and cosmetics. Public-domain library records and digitized editions consistently link his name with Die Darstellung der Seifen, Parfümerien und Cosmetica and with A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumery, an English work based on material from his German handbook.

Rather than a novelist or literary essayist, he appears to have written for readers who wanted practical instruction: manufacturers, tradespeople, and serious amateurs. His books focus on formulas, ingredients, oils, resins, and production methods, which makes them valuable today as snapshots of applied chemistry and commercial craft in the 1800s.

Detailed biographical information about his personal life is hard to confirm from the sources available here, so the clearest picture is the one his books provide: a careful specialist whose work helped document the manufacturing side of scent, soap, and toilet preparations at a time when those industries were rapidly developing.