The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1913-02-07
THE INVENTION OF SOAP
Germans Given Credit for
Being First Manufacturers Of

Being First Manufacturers Of
Soft and Hard Soap.
The invention of soap is ascribed
by P,iny to the Gauls and he gives the
ancient Germans credit for manufac-
turing both hard and soft soaps. From
them the Romans learned the art, but
the soap was for long time princi-
pally used by them as a wash for the
hair. A complete soap boiling estab-
lishment, with soap in good state
of preservation, has been discovered
at Pompeii. Some natural produc-
tons possess the qualities of soap,
as the berries of the soap tree"
found in South America and the West
Indies, and the bark of the Quillaja
soponaria, which has been carried
from Peru to Liverpool for washing
woolens. The juice of the soapwort
or bouncing bet" forms lather with
water and has been used in England
for securing dresses. In California
the root of the phalonginn pomarid-
ianum, which grows there abundantly
and has the color of brown soap, is
much used in washing clothes. Aka
line waters when used upon greasy
| fabrics form soaps similar to those
produced in the regular process OF
manufacture, say Chicago Retailers
Journal.
The ordinary method of soponifca-
ton, as the conversion of fats into
soaps is called, is by boiling them
with solutions of caustic, potash or
soda. Most fats require long-contin-
ued boiling with excess of alkali, but
others-as lard, beef marrow, and oil
of sweet almonds-may be soponifed
by agitation with caustic alkali at or
binary temperatures, and under in
creased pressure the alkaline carbon
ates will readily produce soponifica-
ton of fats.
Every kind of soap contains vari-
able quantity of water, partly in chem
ical combination. Soap is perfectly
soluble in alcohol and hot water, but
both solutions solidify to a jelly at a
certain stage of concentration. Cold
water does not dissolve the ingredi-
ents, which constitute ordinary soap,
without decomposition, the alkali be-
ing dissolved and the oily acid preci-
plated and when hot solutions are
,, cooled the same action takes place.
Soap is quite insoluble in solution
of common salt, containing more than
one part in 400 of water, SO that on
the addition of salt to the contents OF
. a soap pan curd consisting of solid
soap will rise to the surface, while
the alkaline salts and glycerin remain
dissolved in the water.
In he modern soap factory the sci
ence of economical production for
everyday use has been developed to a
point that leaves little room for i'm
3 provement.
I AS practiced in the plant of this big
g concern, the art of soap making may
k be divided broadly into two branches
-causticizing and saponifying. The
!, causticizing is the preparing of the
. lye, which is made from lime and car
= donated soda. The saponifying is the
: boiling of the I've and the tallow to-
gether in one or all of the big "ket
tles' used for that purpose. With the
completion of the boiling, which lasts
for six or seven days, the soap making
u may be said to be completed, as the
4 contents of the kettle are then in the
,. state that needs only good drying tc
q be the soap of the every day market
n But the work of drying the mass and
g subsequent treatment are not less i'm
portant than the mere boiling of the
watts. When the drying is completed
there are still to be performed the
four great processes known i'll the
q trade as milling, pressing and wrap
II ping.
II In most factories these four pro
q. cesses are now done chiefly with ma
20 chinery. In the milling machines thu
\ soap for toilet purposes is chippet
n into ribbonlike strips, which are "plod
-. dered" or crushed in the machines TO
. mixing in the color and perfume, O.
" both. Then the soap is run through
. the pressing machine to give it tn
- special cake form desired. Then /
~ goes to the benches for wrapping
y which in the toilet department is don
~ mostly by hand, but in the laundr
ID soap department, it is almost who'll
re the work of machines.
u Chemistry is one of the most i'm
'n portant features of the modern soa
making industry and all the leadin
soap manufacturers maintain in thei
plants the most thorough and bes
h. equipped chemistry departments tina
IL money can procure. High price
Id chemists, some of them with worlt
d. wide regulations in the domain {
id original research, give all their tim
. to the scientific work to be done
the modern soap factories. Fac
great soap-making plant has its ow
chemist, and many of them have NOR
81 than one.
q In the matter of the by-product
tie from I've and other soan-makinp m;
en- terials the chemical laboratory play
OF very important part. The by-pro'
az ucts of soap are made from material
SO that formerly were consigned to tn
tie waste tanks. But in the economic
of modern soap-making, with the kee
competition that rules the bushes
the handling of the materials by til
- methods which curtail the waste to