The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-10-16
OCALA'S. LATEST INDUSTRY,
THE LANG SOAP FACTORY

only IN It's INFANCY.
OCALA'S. LATEST INDUSTRY,
THE LANG SOAP FACTORY
Next, the Star man, with Col. r.
F. Rogers, visited Ocala's very new
est industry, the r. L. Lang Soap
Factory. This factory is now in full
operation. 1t is located on Lincoln
Heights, west Ocala, and is entirely
local stock company. So quietly has
1T been brought into existence that
few, except the stockholders, know
anything of it at all, and this notice
will come as a surprise to many
Ocala citizens, who did not dream
that we possessed soap factory.
The soap factory is admirably locat
ed in a we'll built building 40x80 feet
that was formerly used for other
purposes, but is most admirably
adapted for it's present use with
park-like yard in front, shaded with
| oak trees. The boiler that supplies
4
cooking the soap is located out in
| the yard. City water has been run
into the building and to the boiler.
As soap making will probably be
as new to the average reader as it
was to the reporter, we will give an
idea of the machinery in the plant
and the uses of the different ma
chimes and the general plan of max
ing soap. First, there are huge
casks of tallow and barrels of resin
from nearby turpentine still, and,
/ by the way, these two items, local
products, comprise from one-half to
three-fourths of the volume and ex-
pense of soap making. Then there
were great drums of caustic I've,
weighing $50 pounds each, bags of
rock salt and barrels of silicate soda,
or "liquid glass;" These constitute,
with plenty of water, the principal
ingredients in soap making, the salt,
however, being only used to clean or
purify the soap in the bottom of the
huge kettles, after the first drawings
have been removed.
The first process is to put the tai
low into a steam heated vat, which is
sunk in the floor. The barrel of tai
low is run over the vat, a steam pipe
inserted and the tallow is soon melt.
ed and runs out, or if it is from 9
local supply, it may be just dumped
in and melted by the steam. The tai
low then goes through a pipe into 6
big iron tank, under the house.
= The caustic I've is then placed il
. the tank, whole cask at time, the
end of the tin covering being chopped
off, and is allowed to rest on beams
in the tank, partially submerged will
} water. In the course of a few hours
+, the 1ye is dissolved, and with thu
melted tallow and other ingredients
this powerful lye solution is pumped
7 into the great kettle or boiler, ant
!. the boiling process commences. Tn
| heat in the boiler is regulated b.
E steam pipes and the mixture cookies
entirely by steam and at any degre
: of heat that may be desired. Thi
| boiler will hold sufficient solution t
make 5000 pounds of soap at boil
ing. The entire process of maxim,
a run of soap requires from ten t.
Y twelve days, from the time the tallo1
S is melted till the bars of soap ar
$ ready to pack and ship; but one rur
e of course, can follow another withou
S this long wait, so that the entir
capacity of the kettle can be mad
every three or four days.
The top of the kettle, which is NOR
than II feet high, has roomy plat
form around it, on which the me
work, reached by short fight O
steps. When the soap is cooked an
|. has cooled to a certain degree, it
drawn off through pipe into tn
"crutcher," huge steel affair, some
thing like clothes mangle, which
C filled with paddles, and when revoly
ed by steam power, the soap is broB
en- up and thoroughly mixed, and an
coloring or favoring matter tha
may be wanted is added and mixed il
r One of the half-dozen big mould
mounted on wheels, steel lined an
arranged so that the sides fall ava!
like cotton press, when the bale
removed, is then rolled under tn
crutcher, that machine is tipped b
power, and the great batch of soa
poured into the mould, and SO on ii
the 5000 pounds is drawn and mike,
These moulds have to cool for abor
{ three days, when the sides are remoN
ed and the great slab of soap, 81
I. feet by four feet by 10 inches,
laid out and a machine run over
d which cuts it into three slabs til
r. thin way. These slabs are in tur
Ie cut the short way, by laying them @
It a table and running a machine TIN
them, when fine wires cut the sla
% into yet smaller slabs, and these al
run over a third machine and Il
,r slabs are cut into cakes ready for Il
,r drying frame, onto which they al
,e run automatically, and never toucl
,e ed by hand. The frames are set ava
pr stacked one upon another and Il
~ soap dries for three days, when it