The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-08-02
SOAP A
MODERN
ARTICLE
Modern Toilet Necessity is Compare
atively a New Article-When Its
Manufacture Begun in the
United Staes.

Soap is one of the most common
things in this commonplace world and
yet very few know that this familiar
household necessity is quite modern
so far as it's use for cleansing pur.
poses is concerned.
Not so very many years ago hard
soap was unknown in the rural dis
tricts of this country and the jar of
soft soap, homemade, stood always
beside the old wooden bucket and the
tin wash basin
Aye, not few of us can still remem-
| Der the old potash kettle and the
rack where the I've was leached from
the hardwood ashes for those soap
making days of early fall!
Today soft soap is almost a thing
of the past except in the most re-
mote mountainous districts, and the
word is never spoken today except as
a phrase to distinguish the character
istics of some smooth politician or t.
arouse the antagonism and ire of some
bereft Of their front incisors.
Soap was unknown to the classical
age both in Greece and Rome. Pliny
mentions a compound which he calls
sapo made by the Gauls and Germans
and the ingredients that entered into
it. He also informs us that it was
mara uSad nv tho mon on7Opo +I,o 10 Z
ter than by the women. 1t appears
however, to have been a pomade fol-
the hair rather than a soap. Wheth
er the term is Celtic or Teutonic we
do not know positively, probably the
latter. That the word was later Dor.
rowed by the Greeks from the Ro.
mans appears certain from the name
sapon, still in common use among
them. The name eventually was
adopted by most of the people of Eu.
rope, the Turks calling the article SO
much in demand in our day sabun and
the Firms saippo. In it's stead the
ancient Greeks used flesh scrapers
These were SO highly esteemed that
they were sometimes made of gold
and given as prizes in athletic con
tests.
Up to the year 1920 soap was al
made by hand in the home. Most of il
was in the form of soft soap, but q
certain inferior kind of hard soap was
also produced. In 1923 the manufac
ture of soap in America began. But
the manufactured soaps of that period
were made by the same methods ac
cepted by the housewives. The grease
and fats were dissolved in I've leached
from wood ashes and the mixture was
boiled in huge watts until it was thick
enough to form into irregular cakes
when cold. The manufacture of soar
continued in this crude way for years
both in this country and Europe. In
1850 the fancy soaps first made theil
| appearance and few years later ma
chinery was invented and installed il
the soap-making industries. In fe y
more years this machinery was per
fected and added to until soap could
be purchased cheaper than it could be
made in the old potash kettles and
soon the soap-mal1ing days in the
home were things of the past.
But soap making as an industry has
made noticeable growth during the
past few years. The soap powder and
the polishing soaps have been intro
duced, to say nothing about the hun.
dreds of kinds of fancy soaps. Soau
is being made today from berries,
,soap-weeds, glycerine, cocoanut oil
and a dozen other fats, oils and
greases The products of the soap H..
dustry at the last census reports to.
tailed nearly $55,OOO,OOO, which was a
large increase over the preceding re.
ports-Electric News.