Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1913-02-06
THE INVENTION OF SOAP
Ancient Germans Given Credit for
Being First Manufacturers of
Soft and Hard Soap

The invention of soap is ascribed
by Pliny 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 wash for the
hair. A complete soap boiling estab-
lishment, with soap in a good state
of preservation, has been discovered
at Pompeii. Some natural produc-
tions 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 a lather with
water and has been used in England
for securing dresses. In California
the root of the phalonginn pomarid-
Iianum, 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 soponifica-
| 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 almoA1s-may be soponitied
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 a vari-
able quantity of water, partly in chem
ical combination. Soap is perfectly
soluble in alcohol and hot water, but
both solutions solidify to jelly at
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
the addition Of salt to the contents OF
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
point that leaves little room for i'm
provement.
AS practiced in the plant of this big
concern, the art of soap making may
be divided broadly into two branches
-causticiZing and saponifying. The
causticizing is the preparing Of the
I've, 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-
ties" used for that purpose. With the
completion of the boiling, which lasts
for six or seven days, the soap making
may be said to be completed, as the
| contents of the kettle are then in the
state that needs only good drying to
be the soap Of the every day market.
But the work of drying the mass and
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 in the
trade as milling, pressing and wrap
ping.
In most factories these four pro-
cesses are now done chiefly with ma
chinery. In the milling machines the
soap for toilet purposes is Clipped
into ribbonlike strips, which are "plod-
dered" or crushed in the machines for
mixing in the color and perfume, or
both. Then the soap is run through
the pressing machine to give it the
special cake form desired. Then it
goes to the benches for wrapping,
which in the toilet department is done
mostly by hand, but in the laundry
soap department, it is almost wholly
the work of machines.
Chemistry is one of the most i'm
portant features of the modern soap
making industry and all the leading
soap manufacturers maintain In their
plants the most thorough and best
equipped chemistry departments that
money can procure. High priced
chemists, some of them with world
wide regulations in the domain Of
original research, give all their time
to the scientific work to be done in
the modern soap factories. Each
great soap-making plant has its own
chemist, and many of them have more
than one.
In the matter of the by-products
from I've and other soap-making ma
terials the chemical laboratory plays
a very important part. The by-prod-
ucts of soap are made from materials
that formerly were consigned to the
waste tanks. But in the economies
/ Of modern soap-making. with the keen