A Very Brief Soapy Clean History

Cleanliness can be traced back to prehistoric times, although cleaning then likely just involved rinsing with water, birdbath style. There is some evidence of soap making in the history of Ancient Rome, though. By the 7th century, Soap making as a craft was well established in Europe. The ashes of plants combined with vegetable and animal oils were used to make soap. Italy, Spain and France were early centers of soap manufacturing, due to their ready supply of oil from olive trees. Skipping forward several hundred years, scientific discoveries in producing alkalis from common salt, along with other advances in the study of oils and the properties of the glycerin that also results from the chemical process, together with the development of power to operate factories, made soap making one of America's fastest-growing industries by 1850. 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, or sometimes referred to as "syndets", synthetic detergents are non-soap washing and cleaning products that are "synthesized" or put together chemically from a variety of raw materials. These are not "true" soap. They are built using a surfactant and builder. The surfactant is a detergent's basic cleaning ingredient, and a builder helps the surfactant to work more efficiently. Phosphate compounds are often used as builders in detergents, especially in laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent. They are harsh on your skin and have a negative impact on the environment. These phosphates present a significant pollution problem in lakes and ground water, encouraging excessive growth of aquatic plants causing green algae blooms. And now we have a resurgence in the craft of handmade soapmaking by people like me...people looking to get clean Old School style!