Soap: Difference between revisions

[[File:Sodium stearate v2.svg|thumb|right|300px|Two equivalent images of the chemical structure of [[sodium stearate]], a typical ingredient found in bar soaps.]]

'''Soap''' is a [[salt (chemistry)|salt]] of a [[fatty acid]] used(sometimes inother acarboxylic varietyacids) ofused cleansingfor cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications.<ref>{{GoldBookRef |title=Soap |file=S05721 |accessdate=9 August 2010}}</ref> In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are [[surfactant]]s usually used for [[washing]], [[bathing]], and other types of [[housekeeping]]. In industrial settings, soaps are used as [[thickener]]s, components of some [[lubricant]]s, [[emulsifier]]s, and precursors to [[catalyst]]s.

It is uncertain as to who was the first to invent soap.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Derry |first1=Thomas Kingston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mf88HKKYEbQC&dq=origin+of+soap+history&pg=PA265 |title=A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A. D. 1900 |last2=Williams |first2=Trevor Illtyd |date=1960-01-01 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486274720 |page=265}}</ref> The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 &nbsp;BC in ancient [[Babylon]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Willcox |first=Michael |title=Poucher's Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7514-0479-1 |editor=Hilda Butler |edition=10th |location=Dordrecht |page=453 |chapter=Soap |quote=The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BCE in ancient Babylon. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4HI8dGHgeIQC&pg=PA453 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820150103/https://books.google.com/books?id=4HI8dGHgeIQC&pg=PA453 |archive-date=2016-08-20 |url-status=live}}</ref> A formula for making soap was written on a [[Sumer]]ian clay tablet around 2500 BC; the soap was produced by heating a mixture of oil and [[wood ash]], the earliest recorded chemical reaction, and used for washing [[woolen]] clothing.<ref name="falbe">{{cite book |last=Veerbek |first=H. |url={{Google Books |SjvtCAAAQBAJ|page=1|plain-url=yes}} |title=Surfactants in Consumer Products |publisher=Springer-Verlag |year=2012 |isbn=9783642715457 |editor=Falbe |editor-first=Jürgen |pages=1–2 |chapter=1 Historical Review |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The [[Ebers papyrus]] (Egypt, 1550 &nbsp;BC) indicates the [[ancient Egypt]]ians used soap as a medicine and combined animal fats or vegetable oils with a [[soda ash]] substance called [[Tronatrona]] to create their soaps.<ref name="falbe" /> Egyptian documents mention a similar substance was used in the preparation of [[wool]] for weaving.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

In the reign of [[Nabonidus]] (556–539 &nbsp;BC), a recipe for soap consisted of ''uhulu'' [ashes], [[cypress]] [oil] and sesame [seed oil] "for washing the stones for the servant girls".<ref>Noted in {{cite journal |author=Levey, Martin |year=1958 |title=Gypsum, salt and soda in ancient Mesopotamian chemical technology |journal=Isis |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=336–342 (341) |doi=10.1086/348678 |jstor=226942 |s2cid=143632451}}</ref>

In the Southern [[Levant]], the ashes from [[Barilla|barilla plants]], such as species of [[Salsola]], saltwort (''[[Seidlitzia rosmarinus]]'') and ''[[Anabasis articulata|Anabasis]]'', were used in soap production, known as [[potash]].<ref>[[Zohar Amar]], ''Flora of the Bible'', Jerusalem 2012, s.v. '''ברית''', p. 216 (note 34) {{OCLC|783455868}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Abu-Rabiʻa |first=ʻAref |url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AbuRabiaBedouin |title=Bedouin Century: Education and Development among the Negev Tribes in the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |location=New York |pages=47–48 |language=en |oclc=47119256 |access-date=2019-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725005846/http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AbuRabiaBedouin |archive-date=2019-07-25 |url-status=live}}</ref> Traditionally, olive oil was used instead of animal lard throughout the Levant, which was boiled in a copper cauldron for several days.<ref name="Cohen1989">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Amnon |title=Economic Life in Ottoman Jerusalem |date=1989 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0521365511 |location=Cambridge |page=81 |language=en}}</ref> As the boiling progresses, alkali ashes and smaller quantities of [[quicklime]] wereare added, and constantly stirred.<ref name="Cohen1989" /> In the case of lard, it required constant stirring while kept lukewarm until it began to trace. Once it began to thicken, the brew was poured into a mold and left to cool and harden for two weeks. After hardening, it was cut into smaller cakes. Aromatic herbs were often added to the rendered soap to impart their fragrance, such as [[yarrow]] leaves, [[lavender]], [[germander]], etc.

Pliny the Elder, whose writings chronicle life in the first century AD, describes soap as '"an invention of the Gauls'".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The history of soapmaking |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-history-soapmaking |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812172210/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-history-soapmaking |archive-date=2022-08-12 |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=The history of soapmaking}}</ref>

The word {{Lang|la|sapo}}, Latin for soap, likely was borrowed from an early Germanic language and is [[cognate]] with Latin {{Lang|la|sebum}}, "[[tallow]]". It first appears in [[Pliny the Elder]]'s account,<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=Soap |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=soap |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208192853/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=soap |archive-date=2011-02-08 |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=etymonline.com}}</ref> ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]'', which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes. There he mentions its use in the treatment of [[Scrofula|scrofulous sores]], as well as among the [[Gauls]] as a dye to redden hair which the men in [[Germania]] were more likely to use than women.<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/28*.html#191 XXVIII.191].</ref><ref>[[Martial]], Epigrammata, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart8.shtml VIII, 33, 20.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121162318/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart8.shtml|date=2013-01-21}}</ref> The Romans avoided washing with harsh soaps before encountering the milder soaps used by the Gauls around 58 &nbsp;BC.<ref name="Foreman">{{cite web |last=Foreman |first=Amanda |date=October 4, 2019 |title=The Long Road to Cleanliness |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-cleanliness-11570196433?mod=e2fb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807091833/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-cleanliness-11570196433?mod=e2fb |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |access-date=October 6, 2019 |work=www.wsj.com}}</ref> [[Aretaeus of Cappadocia]], writing in the 2nd century AD, observes among "Celts, which are men called Gauls, those alkaline substances that are made into balls [...] called ''soap''".<ref>Aretaeus, ''The Extant Works of Aretaeus, the Cappadocian'', ed. and tr. Francis Adams (London) 1856:[https://books.google.com/books?id=v4gIAAAAIAAJ 238 and 496] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609210236/https://books.google.com/books?id=v4gIAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=it|date=2016-06-09}}, noted in Michael W. Dols, "Leprosy in medieval Arabic medicine" ''Journal of the History of Medicine'' 1979:316 note 9; the Gauls with whom the Cappadocian would have been familiar are those of Anatolian [[Galatia (Roman province)|Galatia]].</ref> The Romans' preferred method of cleaning the body was to massage oil into the skin and then scrape away both the oil and any dirt with a [[strigil]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=De Puma |first1=Richard |title=A Third-Century B.C.E. Etruscan Tomb Group from Bolsena in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |pages=429–40}}</ref> The standard design is a curved blade with a handle, all of which is made of metal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Padgett |first1=J. Michael |title=Objects of Desire: Greek Vases from the John B. Elliot Collection. |date=2002 |publisher=Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University. |pages=36–48}}</ref>

The 2nd-century AD physician [[Galen]] describes soap-making using lye and prescribes washing to carry away impurities from the body and clothes. The use of soap for personal cleanliness became increasingly common in this period. According to Galen, the best soaps were Germanic, and soaps from Gaul were second best. [[Zosimos of Panopolis]], ''circa'' 300 &nbsp;AD, describes soap and soapmaking.<ref>{{cite book |last=Partington |first=James Riddick |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/307 |title=A History of Greek Fire and Gun Powder |author2=Hall, Bert S |publisher=JHU Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8018-5954-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/307 307] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

A detergent similar to soap was manufactured in ancient China from the seeds of ''[[Gleditsia sinensis]]''.<ref name="Jones">{{cite book |author=Jones, Geoffrey |title=Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-160961-9 |chapter=Cleanliness and Civilization |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qki6zZ4aWd0C&pg=PP101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507004012/https://books.google.com/books?id=qki6zZ4aWd0C&pg=PP101 |archive-date=2016-05-07 |url-status=live}}</ref> Another traditional detergent is a mixture of pig pancreas and plant ash called ''zhuyizi'' ({{zh|s=猪胰子|t=豬胰子|p=zhūyízǐ}}). Soap made of animal fat did not appear in China until the modern era.<ref name="Benn">{{cite book |author=Benn, Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ile3jSveb4sC&pg=PA116 |title=Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-517665-0 |page=116 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505002603/https://books.google.com/books?id=ile3jSveb4sC&pg=PA116 |archive-date=2016-05-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> Soap-like detergents were not as popular as ointments and creams.<ref name="Jones" />

===15th–18th16th–17th century===

In France, by the second half of the 15th16th century, the semi-industrialized professional manufacture of soap was concentrated in a few centers of [[Provence]]—[[Toulon]], [[Hyères]], and [[Marseille]]—which supplied the rest of France.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Nef, John U. |year=1936 |title=A Comparison of Industrial Growth in France and England from 1540 to 1640: III |journal=The Journal of Political Economy |volume=44 |issue=5 |pages=643–666 (660ff.) |doi=10.1086/254976 |jstor=1824135 |s2cid=222453265}}</ref> In Marseilles, by 1525, production was concentrated in at least two factories, and soap production at Marseille tended to eclipse the other Provençal centers.<ref>Barthélemy, L. (1883) "La savonnerie marseillaise", noted by Nef 1936:660 note 99.</ref> English manufacture tended to concentrate in London.<ref>Nef 1936:653, 660.</ref>

Finer soaps were later produced in Europe from the 16th17th century, using vegetable oils (such as [[olive oil]]) as opposed to animal fats. Many of these soaps are still produced, both industrially and by small-scale artisans. [[Castile soap]] is a popular example of the vegetable-only soaps derived from the oldest "white soap" of Italy. In 1634 Charles I granted the newly formed Society of Soapmakers a monopoly in soap production who produced certificates from 'foure Countesses, and five Viscountesses, and divers other Ladies and Gentlewomen of great credite and quality, besides common Laundresses and others', testifying that 'the New White Soap washeth whiter and sweeter than the Old Soap'.<ref>Keith Thomas, 'Noisomeness,' ''London Review of Books'', Vol. 42 No. 14, 16 July 2020</ref>