Who discovered soap? We don't know, but it may have been in prehistoric times. People who use bonfires to roast meat find an incredible substance (soap) on the ground where the ash (alkali) from the bonfire after the storm (water) and the animal fat (oil) obtained from cooking are left...... It turned out that not only the pot, but also the hands were washed very clean (^_^).

The Mesopotamians recorded the practice of soap on clay tablets in cuneiform script in 3000 BC, the earliest record of the process, and then passed the technique to the Phoenicians in 600 BC. In this era, soap was used to wash wool and cotton fiber products.

There is a very interesting legend about the origin of the soap-making method:

Legend 1:

It is said that soap was invented by women who washed clothes in a river under the mountain called Sapo in Rome. These women found that if they washed their clothes at a specific time and in a specific place, they would wash them cleaner than usual. This was due to the fact that wood ash and animal fat, which were used as sacrifices, flowed into the river along with the rainwater at the temple on the hill, forming a liquid soap that made it easier for women to do their laundry. So the origin of the name SOAP is derived from the name of this hill SAPO. ...... However, although this legend emphasizes that the soap-making method was invented by the Romans, it was actually the Celts who first discovered it, and it may be that the Romans, who wanted to confront the Celts, who had a deep connection, fabricated such a rumor. IT TURNS OUT THAT THE ORIGIN OF "SOAP" IS THE ANCIENT LATIN WORD "SAPO" USED BY THE CELTS, WHICH MEANS "HAIR DYE MADE FROM A MIXTURE OF TALLOW AND ASH".

Legend 2:

Soap originated in ancient Egypt. A long time ago, King Khufu of Egypt hosted a banquet with great hospitality. One day, due to the large number of customers coming and going, the materials in the kitchen were scattered there, and it was difficult for people to turn around. But something went wrong in the hectic, the food chef accidentally kicked on the oil stool, a basin full of oil knocked over, spilled all over the ground, and the guys rushed to help clean up the venue. They took the grease-stained ash out of the kitchen and threw it away, then returned to the basin to wash their hands, and to their surprise, they found that their hands were very clean, which was much more time-saving and water-saving than before. The masters all thought it was strange. They called in their masters, and they also washed their hands with charcoal ash to remove the dirt in this way, and they also received good results. A flattering warlord reported to the king that the cook had wasted oil and that he should be condemned. When the king learned that they had invented a new way of washing his hands, he did not heed the advice of the warden and instructed his men to make charcoal ash cakes stained with grease according to the cook's method, and place them in the washing place for the guests to use. In fact, this is the prototype of soap. By 70 A.D., Pliny, a scholar of the Roman Empire, had succeeded for the first time in making block soap from mutton fat and wood grass ash. From then on, soap began to be used in Rome. This technology was later introduced to England, where Queen Elizabeth I ordered the construction of the world's first large-scale soap factory in Bristules, England. Later, the French chemist Lublan, through his own experiments, changed from using soap as a raw material to making caustic soda by electrolyzing salt, and the cost was much lower than the price of the British who used boiled mutton fat to mix caustic soda and chalk to make soap. Since then, soap has gradually been used by the people and entered thousands of households.

The Ancient Roman Empire and the Caertic Civilization

An early history of soap-making, discovered in the history of Ancient Rome. Soap was made from goat fat and wood ash, and solid soap was made from salt. A historian at the time recorded it and kept it. Pompeii (the ancient capital of Italy, which was submerged in 79 BC) after the eruption, confirms the remains of a soap factory. Through the experience of the ancient Romans in public baths at that time, we learned that soap was not used to wash the body at that time. In Greece and Rome, olive oil and sand were used to wipe the body and make the dirt and oil fall off with a prop. After the body's dirt falls, use an ointment made from medicinal herbs to moisturize. At that time, people felt that bathing was good for the body, and enjoyed themselves in medicinal baths. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, who is famous for her beauty to dump the two leaders of Rome, is rumored to be the root of her beauty because she bathed in mare's milk. In the early days of the park, soap was used to treat internal ailments, and in the 2nd century, physician Carlin recommended that patients put soap in the bathtub to bathe, which would be good for certain skin types. In the late Roman period, the habit of washing the body with soap slowly developed, and although the use of soap developed, because there was no media propaganda like it is now, people in small villages still bathed with olive oil and sand in the 3rd century, when soap was popular in urban public baths.

European Dark Ages

During the Dark Ages after the collapse of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, soap making and its use were almost extinct. The remnants of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire (ancient Roman city), and the Arab Empire in the eastern Mediterranean region still retain soap-making technology. In the 8th century, Italy and Spain revived soap-making technology, and it was not until the 13th century that French began to sell soap in European markets, and in the 14th century, soap-making spread to England. Olive oil was used to make soap in Italy, Spain, the French port of Marseille, and Castile (an ancient kingdom in northern Spain) in southern Europe. These olive oils were very difficult to obtain (at that time there were only virgin juice oils, and there were no pomace olive oils made by chemical refining methods), and the soaps made with these olive oils were of higher quality than those made in England and northern France, which were made from animal fats. Tallow, which was obtained from cattle, was the main oil at the time, and fish oil was also used by soapmakers in northern Europe. Soaps made from animal fats are more suitable for cleaning textiles, but they are less suitable for bathing. In contrast, olive oil from southern Europe is outstanding, and soap exports from southern Europe are becoming more active.

Although there are also rumors that people in the Dark Ages did not bathe, that is just a misunderstanding. At that time there were public baths with large baths and soap, and nobles and wealthy merchants had their own baths.

Bathing began to become less prevalent in the late Middle Ages. At that time, considering that one-third of the people died from infectious diseases transmitted by public baths, public baths had to be closed altogether. The people of the Renaissance began to stop keeping their bodies clean and liked to put strong perfumes on their bodies. The soap is only kept as a washing item. Some people used soap as a way to wash their bodies, but it was used less frequently than it does today. Although it was not very popular, soap was a very valuable product in the 17th ~ 18th centuries, and it was inherited by North and South America through immigration to the wilderness. Although the idea of bathing the whole body is very old, how to keep yourself clean is a very important thing for everyone.

Colonial America and the development of soap in the United States

The first settlers to the United States wanted to make soap in the United States and shipped soap-making materials in large quantities from Europe. The Massachusetts (state) company, known as Talbot's ship, specialized in transporting people's supplies from Europe to the colonies (now Sharon and Boston), but the ship capsized due to a large amount of soap. John Winthrop, the leader of the Massachusetts Company, sent a letter from Boston in 1630 to his wife, who lived in Europe, asking her to sail to the United States, one of which was "soap."

After the settlers began to settle in the United States, they struggled to get out of poverty for the first few years. The abundant wood and wood ash in the settlements, as well as the oil available to the animals they eat, provided the necessary materials for making soap. Not only does you not have to wait for the slow arrival of soap from Europe, but you also save money on buying soap. After that, the soap-making method was made public by the early settlers for a while. Since the season for obtaining animal fat is autumn, tallow and pork fat can be obtained in large quantities at that time, and in the season when there is no animal fat, farms make soap from the ash obtained by burning and the waste oil after cooking in the spring and winter, and accumulate these soaps for use.

The refining method of alkali at that time

How did the ancients obtain the indispensable alkali for soap making from the ash of wood? A bottomless bucket was placed on top of a thick slab of stone with a water filling groove, and the ash of the wood was placed in the bucket. Place a thick slab of stone on top of a lot of piled up stones. In order to prevent the ash of the wood from getting into the liquid potassium made of it, a compartment of wheat straw and the like is placed in the barrel before the wood enters. Slowly fill the top of the ash with water until a brown-colored liquid oozes from under the bucket. The liquid then flows into the groove of the stone slab, and the liquid that flows through the water inlet forms potassium hydroxide suitable for soap making.

Not only is this method used by immigrants, but also by those who use a funnel-shaped container called a hopper to ingest potassium hydroxide from wood ash. In order to prevent rainwater from entering the ashes, the hopper was kept in the hut. In order for potassium hydroxide to be extracted all the time, ash is added periodically, and water is injected from time to time. Potassium hydroxide is kept in a container placed under the hopper.

Refining of fats and fats

Grease is an indispensable material for soap making, and at that time, in the United States, only tallow obtained from cattle and pigs could be used as oil to make soap. In order to obtain animal fats for soap making, the refining of fats and fats is very important. In modern times, it is possible to refine unrefined tallow and pork fat from butchers to make clean grease suitable for soap making, and there are many people who refine grease in the kitchen. (Refinement method to be translated later). At that time, the soap was made from waste oil obtained little by little during cooking, but the waste oil had to be refined. In the era when there were no refrigerators, the waste oil accumulated over a long period of time was almost oxidized when it was used. Waste oil, which emits an oxidizing odor, can be deodorized by refining, but even if it has good cleaning power, this soap is not popular.

Soap making

With potassium hydroxide and grease in hand, we can finally start the soap-making process. Put potassium hydroxide and grease in a large pot and bring to a boil outside over a campfire. When the texture slowly hardens and begins to bubble after a long period of boiling, it is removed from the fire when there is no stinging sensation with your tongue. This process will take 6~8 hours depending on the amount of texture and the strength of potassium hydroxide.

Liquid soap vs. solid soap

Soap made from wood ash is not solid, but gelatinous. The soap made with the above method will turn into a brown gel the next day, and it will be wet to the touch, and your hands will be washed with water (this is exactly the liquid soap made with potassium). The soap is stored in a wooden barrel and can be removed and used immediately as needed. To make solid soap from potassium hydroxide, add salt at the last minute after the grease and potassium hydroxide have boiled, and the soap that solidifies on the surface of the pot is made.

However, salt was expensive and hard to come by, so it was generally not used to make solid soaps. At that time, salt was more important as bait for livestock or as food preservation, and the immigrants initially thought that there was no need to make solid soap because of the same washing power as solid soap. However, solid soap is easier to carry and transport in cities, so solid soap made from salt is becoming popular. At that time, essential oils obtained from lavender, verbena, various types of herbs, etc., began to be used in soap-making technology, and cosmetic soaps began to become popular in the city. Solid soap is made from wooden molds, and is not sold in small pieces, but in large pieces, and then bought at home and cut into small pieces for use, and the soap is sold in units of about 450 grams. The sale of soap in small pieces began in the mid-19th century.

In addition, soap making was a very difficult task on the farm at the time, and it was generally done by women.

Difficulties in soap making

At that time, it was also very difficult to determine the strength of sodium hydroxide, potatoes and eggs into the liquid of potassium hydroxide, there would be different degrees of floating, in order to make soap, there must be a proper method to determine the strength of potassium hydroxide. MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT IF THE POTATO RISES ABOUT 2.4 CM FROM THE LIQUID SURFACE OF POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE, IT IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE STRENGTH.

At that time, soap makers lacked knowledge of chemical aspects such as the "saponification method", and there were many superstitions related to soap making. For example, there are legends such as "making good soap according to the rise and fall of the tide and the position of the moon". The trick of the eastern Pennsylvanians (descendants of the inhabitants who moved to Pennsylvania from southern Germany or Switzerland in the 17th and 18th centuries) was to "stir the soap only with a sassafras stick, and it had to be stirred in the same direction," says the instruction manual. (laughs, these legends are actually quite interesting.)

In the late colonial era, soap merchants began to do business in the cities, and people interested in soap began to make high-quality soap at home. Since soap-making was still very difficult at that time, there were many folklore related to soap-making. Elizabeth Ranch Norton, niece of former U.S. President John Adams, wrote in her diary in 1799 about the excitement and anger of soap-making, which shows how difficult soap-making was at the time. She had to do a lot of work before making a soap for her family.

Export of potassium

In colonial America, soap making was deeply related to the refining of potassium. Refined potassium is not only used to make soap, but also to make glass. Refined potassium carbonate was one of the few products that the American colonies exported to Britain at that time and could be exchanged for money, and it was a very important export product. Export earnings from other products were mainly collected by the British colonies in the West Indies.

At the end of the 18th century, with the tendency to move to the west coast, cities expanded, the supply of timber was insufficient, and the production of potassium was decreasing. But even so, until the end of the 19th century, potassium remained as an important industry on the U.S. border. Potassium carbonate remains the main U.S. export. And when Lublan's method made it possible to extract caustic soda from brine, the importance of potassium refining in the United States gradually diminished, and eventually it disappeared.

The soap revolution

In 1790, Nicola Lublin of France discovered a method for extracting sodium carbonate from seawater salt, and in 1890, the electrolytic sodium salt method (which is now also used) was industrialized in Germany. The acquisition of caustic soda has created a huge revolution in the soap industry. The use of caustic soda in the soap industry allows it to be made into solid soap without the need to use salt, which alters the quality of the soap. Not only that, but it also omits some of the previous difficult tasks – cutting and burning, evaporating water with wood ash, and burning the excess.

Caustic soda replaced potassium as the alkali used to make soap, soap making became simpler, more people began to make soap for cosmetics, no longer something that only the aristocracy and wealthy could enjoy, and the popularity of bathing began to revivenation, and the consumption of soap rose sharply in the 19th century, just like in the Victorian era, soap was approached by people.