Soap
a well known household article used for cleansing and washing. Soaps differ greatly in appearance and quality, but all alike are made of some fatty substance compounded with potash or soda. Old-fashioned soft soap may be made of wood lye, leached from the ashes preferably of some hard wood, as maple, hickory, oak, or beech, and scraps of fatty matter from the kitchen. There are almost as many soaps as oils. Laundry soaps are made usually from tallow or cotton-seed oil. Yellow soaps owe their color to a certain addition of rosin, which is not only cheaper, but rather improves the quality of the soap. White soaps are made usually from tallow, palm oil, or cocoanut oil. Castile soap is made from olive oil, with the addition usually of oil of cocoanut. A mottled appearance is produced by the addition of some coloring material. Palm oil makes an excellent toilet soap.
Soap is made usually in a large mass in vats or kettles, and is cut into cakes of the required size by wires. These cakes are then pressed in a mold, provided usually with lettering by way of a stamp. The finger soaps are made with especial care. Their delicate odor is imparted by the admixture of some volatile oil by way of a perfume. Transparent soaps are made by dissolving a toilet soap in alcohol. The solution is then poured off, leaving the dregs behind. When the alcohol is distilled, the residue, consisting of the soap, is beautifully transparent. Many soaps are made transparent also by the addition of glycerine well stirred in. Scouring soaps are common strong laundry soaps with a grit secured by an intermixture of finely powdered sand, glass, or pumice stone.
The making of soap and the making of candles have long been linked. Fat the chandler could not use for candles he turned into soap. The common grades of American soap are now turned out as a by-product of the great packinghouses. Someone has said that the general use of soap is an index of advanced civilization. In 1900 the United States soap and candle manufacturers turned out $53,231,017 worth of products. There were 558 establishments. Small manufacturers are being forced out of the business by the larger concerns. An attempt to form a British soap trust was foiled in 1906 by the refusal of the British public to buy soap not bearing the stamp of an independent maker.