Lampe Berger Fact or Myth

Several weeks ago, I received an object that looks like an oversized perfume bottle. The pamphlet inside the box said that the object would remove cooking odors, and freshen stale air. I thought under my breath , "I bet it does" and put it up in the closet.    Recently I had company over and had to cook a big breakfast with eggs and a lot of bacon in my small condo and thought I would give this perfume like bottle a try--actually it was called a Lampe Berger--a try.    Not only did it work, but I can't wait to use it again. My wife's sister is a chain smoker and not allowed to smoke in our tiny house. So I tried it again--I mean the Lampe Berger, it worked!   The leaflet says that its secret for removing unpleasant odors was patented in 1897 by a French pharmacist, Marcel Berger, who "tested the effects of high temperature catalytic combustion as a process for disinfecting hospital rooms."    No matter how you want to explain the process, the lamp ...