Soapmaking was an established craft in Europe
by the seventh century. Soapmaker guilds guarded their trade secrets
closely. Vegetable and animal oils were used with ashes of plants, along
with fragrance. Gradually more varieties of soap became available for
shaving and shampooing, as well as bathing and laundering.
Italy,
Spain and France were early centers of soap manufacturing, due to their
ready supply of raw materials such as oil from olive trees. The English
began making soap during the 12th century. The soap business was so good
that in 1622, King James I granted a monopoly to a soapmaker for $100,000 a
year. Well into the 19th century, soap was heavily taxed as a luxury item in
several countries. When the high tax was removed, soap became available to
ordinary people, and cleanliness standards improved.
Commercial soapmaking in the American colonies began in 1608 with the
arrival of several soapmakers on the second ship from England to reach
Jamestown, VA. However, for many years, soapmaking stayed essentially a
household chore. Eventually, professional soapmakers began regularly
collecting waste fats from households, in exchange for some soap.
A major step toward
large-scale commercial soapmaking occurred in 1791 when a French chemist,
Nicholas Leblanc, patented a process for making soda ash, or sodium
carbonate, from common salt. Soda ash is the alkali obtained from ashes that
combines with fat to form soap. The Leblanc process yielded quantities of
good quality, inexpensive soda ash.
The science of modern
soapmaking was bom some 20 years later with the discovery by Michel Eugene
Chevreul, another French chemist, of the chemical nature and relationship of
fats, glycerine and fatty acids. His studies established the basis for both
fat and soap chemistry.
Also
important to the advancement of soap technology was the mid-1800s invention
by the Belgian chemist, Ernest Solvay, of the ammonia process, which also
used common table salt, or sodium chloride, to make soda ash. Solvay's
process further reduced the cost of obtaining this alkali, and increased
both the quality and quantity of the soda ash available for manufacturing
soap.
These scientific discoveries, together with the development of
power to operate factories, made soapmaking one of America's fastest-growing
industries by 1850. At the same time, its broad availability changed soap
from a luxury item to an everyday necessity. With this widespread use came
the development of milder soaps for bathing and soaps for use in the washing
machines that were available to consumers by the turn of the century.
The chemistry of soap manufacturing stayed essentially the
same until 1916, when the first synthetic detergent was developed in Germany
in response to a World War I-related shortage of fats for making soap. Known
today simply as detergents, synthetic detergents are non-soap washing and
cleaning products that are "synthesized" or put together chemically from a
variety of raw materials. The discovery of detergents was also driven by the
need for a cleaning agent that, unlike soap, would not combine with the
mineral salts in water to form an insoluble substance known as soap curd.
Household detergent production in the United States began in the early
1930s, but did not really take off until after World War II. The war-time
interruption of fat and oil supplies as well as the military's need for a
cleaning agent that would work in mineral-rich sea water and in cold water
had further stimulated research on detergents.
The first
detergents were used chiefly for hand dishwashing and fine fabric
laundering. The breakthrough in the development of detergents for
all-purpose laundry uses came in 1946, when the first "built" detergent
(containing a surfactant/builder combination) was introduced in the U.S. The
surfactant is a detergent product's basic cleaning ingredient, while the
builder helps the surfactant to work more efficiently. Phosphate compounds
used as builders in these detergents vastly improved performance, making
them suitable for cleaning heavily soiled laundry.
By 1953, sales of detergents in this country had surpassed those of
soap. Now detergents have all but replaced soap-based products for
laundering, dishwashing and household cleaning. Detergents (alone or in
combination with soap) are also found in many of the bars and liquids used
for personal cleansing.
Since those early achievements in detergent and builder chemistry,
new product activity has continued to focus on developing cleaning products
that are efficient and easy to use, as well as safe for consumers and for
the environment. Here's a summary of some of those innovations:
1950s
Automatic dishwasher powders
Liquid laundry, hand dishwashing and all-purpose cleaning products
Fabric softeners (rinse-cycle added)
Detergent with oxygen bleach
1960s
Prewash soil and stain removers
Laundry powders with enzymes
Enzyme presoaks
1970s
Liquid hand soaps
Fabric softeners (sheets and wash-cycle added)
Multifunctional products (e.g., detergent with fabric softener)
1980s
Detergents for cooler water washing
Automatic dishwasher liquids
Concentrated laundry powders
1990s
Ultra (superconcentrated) powder and liquid detergents
Ultra fabric softeners
Automatic dishwasher gels
Laundry and cleaning product refills
The origins of personal cleanliness date back to prehistoric times. Since water
is essential for life, the earliest people lived near water and knew something
about its cleansing properties - at least that it rinsed mud off their hands.
A soap-like
material found in clay cylinders during the excavation of ancient Babylon is
evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800 B.C. Inscriptions on
the cylinders say that fats were
boiled with ashes, which is a method of making soap, but do not refer to the
purpose of the "soap." Such materials were later used as hair styling aids. 
At about the
same time, Moses gave the Israelites detailed laws governing personal
cleanliness. He also related cleanliness to health and religious purification.
Biblical accounts suggest that the Israelites knew that mixing ashes and oil
produced a kind of hair gel. 
The early
Greeks bathed for aesthetic reasons and apparently did not use soap. Instead,
they cleaned their bodies with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes, then
anointed themselves with oil, and scraped off the oil and dirt with a metal
instrument known as a strigil. They also used oil with ashes. Clothes were
washed without soap in streams. 
Soap got its
name, according to an ancient Roman legend, from Mount Sapo, where animals were
sacrificed. Rain washed a mixture of melted animal fat, or tallow, and wood
ashes down into the clay soil along the Tiber River. Women found that this clay
mixture made their wash cleaner with much less effort. 
As Roman
civilization advanced, so did bathing. The first of the famous Roman baths,
supplied with water from their aqueducts, was built about 312 B.C. The baths
were luxurious, and bathing became very popular. By the second century A.D., the
Greek physician, Galen, recommended soap for both medicinal and cleansing
purposes. 
