Saponification

“ The process of saponification itself proceeds with perfect facility, even in a closed vessel; no gas is disengaged; the neutral fat, of whatsoever kind, is simply resolved into an alkaline salt of the fatty acid, which is soap, and into glycerin, a neutral body resembling syrup, and, like that liquid, miscible with water in every proportion.
“When yellow soap is made with the cheaper kinds of fat it will hardly acquire a sufficient degree of firmness or hardness to satisfy the thrifty washerwoman. ”

“ Milling-base.—The materials generally used are tallows and cocoa-nut oils of the finest quality. The tallow is thoroughly saponified first, and the graining is performed by the aid of caustic soda lye in preference to salt. The half-spent lyes are withdrawn, and the cocoa-nut oil added to the pan. This is saponified, and when the saponification is complete, "boiling-on-strength" is proceeded with. Special care should be devoted to the "boiling-on-strength" operation—its value in good soap-making cannot be over-rated—and perfect saponification must be ensured. ”

“ A soap so made is not the result of saponification but of a simple combination, as is the case also with resin soaps. All other soaps result from the combination of fatty oils and fat with potash or soda solutions under conditions which favour saponification. The soap solution which results from the combination forms soap-size and is a mixture of soap with water, the excess alkali, and the glycerin liberated from the oil. In such condition ordinary soft soaps and certain kinds of hard soap are brought to the market. ”

“ The material left after the steam distillation was cooled and shaken out with ether. The ethereal solution [Pg 35] was dried with anhydrous sodium sulphate and the ether removed by distillation. The resulting mass was a dark brown resin without any characteristic odor, solidifying at zero degrees.
The crystalline product with a melting point of 130 degrees and the essential oil are evidently the alcohols formed through saponification of the resin esters. The crystalline product could be readily separated from the resinous material because of its slight solubility in acetone. ”

“ The saponins (with few exceptions) have the general formula CnH2n–8O10, and by the action of dilute acids they are hydrolysed into sugars and sapogenins, which are usually inert pharmacologically. An alternative name for them, and especially for those which are pharmacologically active, is sapotoxins; on this nomenclature the hydrolytic products are termed saponins. Applied as a snuff to the mucous membrane of the nose, saponin (either in soap- bark or in senega root) promotes a violent sneezing. Solutions injected under the skin are violent local irritants and general depressants. ”

“ He passed unscathed through the barrage of sticks and diaries; evaded skilfully the indirect fire of electric torches; reached his first objective among the soap-boxes, and there met his fate.
"Doctor," he demanded suddenly, "what's 'savon jollymouse'?"
"Savon," the doctor began didactically, "is a preparation of fatty acids saponified with alkali. It is principally manufactured from coker-nut oil, although other similar, if less offensive, substances are sometimes employed. In the English tongue it is known as 'soap,' and——"
"You idiot," said the War Babe amiably, "I know what 'savon' is. ”

“ So everybody started off for the palace and never stopped until they stood outside the monarch's sitting-room. "Wait a moment," said the Chairman of the Exterminating Committee, "until I see whether he is busy." Whereupon he put his eye to the keyhole. "Yes," he said, straightening up again, "he is quite busy snooping under his bathroom door."
"But," said Pranc, "what's the use of that?"
"What's the use of anything?" snapped the First Lord of the Keyhole. "Practice makes perfect, and the more you snoop the better you can do it. The King of Snoopania does not believe in wasting his time, sir." ”

“ The extracted salt leys, by being run through a lime cave, might have been converted into a good caustic ley, and used over again with advantage.
Soap-makers will do well to consider this case with attention. By so doing, disagreeable circumstances of a similar nature may be avoided; and, consequently, much time, expences, and an infinite quantity of trouble, saved. No soap-ley at any time ought to be used, but such as, by experiment, is proved to be a caustic ley, entirely freed from its fixed air. ”

“ Sonping is also an important factor in the production of the best work. It clears the white parts of the goods, brightens the colours and generally improves the whole appearance of the cloth. The strength and temperature of the soap solution, the duration of the soaping and the type of machine used are all varied according to the fastness of the colours to be soaped. As in washing, the alizarine dyed colours, alizarine “ steam " reds and pinks, aniline black and the ice-colours, will not only withstand a long, hot and strong soaping, but are greatly brightened and enhanced in beauty thereby. ”

“ SOAPWORT. The Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) grows commonly in England near villages, on roadsides, and by the margins of woods, in moist situations. It belongs to the Caryophyllaceoe, or Clove and Pink tribe of plants; and a double flowered variety of it is met with in gardens. This is Miss Mitford's "Spicer" in Our Village. It is sometimes named "Bouncing Bet," and "Fuller's herb."
The root has a sweetish bitter taste, but no odour. It contains resin and mucilage, in addition to saponin, which is its leading principle, and by virtue of which decoctions of the root produce a soapy froth. ”

“ If your grocer does not keep Sapolio he can order it for you from any wholesale grocer in the United States.
What is Sapolio?
It is a solid, handsome cake of scouring soap, which has no equal for all cleaning purposes, except the laundry.
What will Sapolio do? Why, it will clean paint, make oil cloths bright. You can scour the knives and forks with it, and make the tin things shine brightly.
The wash basin, the bath tub, even the greasy kitchen sink, will be as clean as a new pin if you use SAPOLIO.
BEWARE OF IMITATIONS.
GRANŪLA
An Incomparable Food. Ready for immediate use. ”

“ Fuchs thinks it must have been the Saponaria officinalis (soap-wort) , the roots of which indeed contain a saponaceous juice that readily changes the saliva into froth. The root was employed for that purpose by the impostor in Lucian; and the juice is used at present for cleaning wool and cloth. In the Helvetian Alps, the sheep, before they are shorn, are washed with a decoction of the plant and its roots; and with a mixture of ashes it serves for cleaning linen. The taste of it is so sharp, that it is compared by some to that of the small burnet-saxifrage. ”

“ On the Continent, however, the peasantry are wiser, and not only provide themselves with chestnuts for soap, but gather the beech-leaves to stuff their mattresses.
Returning to the Caryophyllaceæ, we may add that some of the plants of this order have poisonous qualities, which are due to the principle called saponine existing in many of the species of Saponaria, Silene, Lychnis, and Dianthus.
According to Lindley, the order includes no less than 53 genera, and 1055 species. They inhabit chiefly temperate and cold regions, and are ranked in three sub-orders,—Alsineæ, Sileneæ, and Mollugineæ. ”

“ Here the blanks are plunged into a tank of cold water, which hisses and spits like a dozen angry snakes as the hot metal touches it. From the cooling bath the blanks go to the acid bath. Into this latter they disappear black with the oxide of copper clinging to them. Pears' Soap or Sapolio, or whatever means to cleanliness we may employ, would hardly accomplish the wonders in an hour's application to the human skin, [Pg 147] which a few seconds of the sulphuric solution accomplishes with the blank of the coin. They emerge from their bath in every sense white as snow. ”

“ So when the King's soldiers entered the room to seize him he waited until they came very near, and then he twisted the ring the Fairy Godmother had given him, and bing—flat on their backs the soldiers fell, bumping their heads like anything.
"Good-by," cried Pranc, waving his hand to the Snooping Bug, "I'm going home."
"Wait," shouted the Snooping Bug, "I'll go with you."
"No," replied the Prince, "I've had quite enough of snoopers and snooping bugs. You stay where you are."
Then he jumped over the prostrate soldiers and out the door of the palace. ”

“ Sapogenin may be separated by evaporating the neutralised liquid to dryness, treating the dry residue with ether, which dissolves out the sapogenin, and finally recovering the substance from the ethereal solution, and crystallising it from hot alcohol. Crystals are readily obtained if the alcoholic solution is allowed to evaporate spontaneously. A solution of saponin exposed to the air gets turbid, and develops carbon dioxide; not unfrequently the solution becomes mouldy. ”

“ Even before the match was struck I saw a dark body lying across the passage.
"A dead man!" I guessed instantly.
"Why, no," said Sapt, striking a light: "a dead dog, Fritz."
An exclamation of wonder escaped me as I fell on my knees. At the same instant Sapt muttered, "Aye, there's a lamp," and Stretching up his hand to a little oil lamp that stood on a bracket, he lit it, took it down, and held it over the body. It served to give a fair, though unsteady, light, and enabled us to see what lay in the passage. ”

“ When different leys are used, that is, some strong, and others weak, particular attention must be paid to the proportioning the one with the other, or, the weak with the strong, in order that a proper strength, or boiling ley, be had from the composition. If too weak leys are used, there is a danger incurred of spoiling the whole soap, which is hardly to be righted again. ”

“ It seemed indeed as though some strange influence were dominating Sapt; he went about the work like a man who is hardly awake. They placed the bodies each where the living man would be by night—the king in the guest-room, the huntsman in the sort of cupboard where the honest fellow had been wont to lie. They dug up the buried dog, Sapt chuckling convulsively, James grave as the mute whose grim doings he seemed to travesty: they carried the shot-pierced, earth-grimed thing in, and laid it in the king’s room. ”

“ Sappho, tell me this,
Was I not sometimes fair? My eyes, my mouth,
My hair that loved the wind, were they not worth
The breath of love upon them? Yet he passed,
And he will pass to-night when all the air
Is blue with twilight; but I shall not see.
I shall have gone forever. Hold my hands,
Hold fast that Death may never come between;
Swear by the gods you will not let me go;
Make songs for Death as you would sing to Love—
But you will not assuage him. He alone
Of all the gods will take no gifts from men.
I am afraid, afraid.
Sappho, lean down. ”

“ As mistakes by Excise-officers are not at all improbable, in casting up gauges of soap, it is proper that every soap-maker should cast up his own, after the dip of the frame is ascertained by the officer, supervisor, &c. ”

“ SCENE VII.--LÉANDRE, OCTAVE, SCAPIN.
LEA. Ah! my dear Scapin, I pray you to help me.
SCA. (rising and passing proudly before LÉANDRE) . Ah! my dear Scapin! I am my dear Scapin, now that I am wanted.
LEA. I will forgive you all that you confessed just now, and more also.
SCA. No, no; forgive me nothing; run your sword through and through my body. I should be perfectly satisfied if you were to kill me.
LEA. I beseech you rather to give me life by serving my love. ”

“ In spite of all that is in these days being written about Sappho, it is perhaps not out of place now to inquire, in a few words, into the substance of this supremacy which towers so unassailably secure from what appear to be such shadowy foundations. ”

“ Can anything that you may add be of so much moment that you should suffer torture and death sooner than reveal it?”
Gianluca shivered. “What do you desire to know?” he asked. “What can I add? You seem already to know all—more even than do I. Or is it,” he added in sudden apprehension, “that you seek my evidence to use it against this lady?”
“Already have I all the evidence I need, were such my aim. There is the letter which she wrote her father. That alone would doom her did I desire it. No, no. All that I seek to learn from you is the precise nature of this trap that has been prepared. ”

“ Yearns thy soul—say whom shall my glamour chaining
Hale thy love's thrall, Sappho?—and who is wronging
⁠Thee with disdaining?
Who avoids thee soon shall be thy pursuer:
Ay, the gift-rejecter the giver shall now be:
Ay, the loveless now shall become the wooer,
⁠Scornful shalt thou be!"
Once again come! Come, and my chains dissever,
Chains of heart-ache! Passionate longings rend me—
Oh fulfil them! Thou in the strife be ever
⁠Near, to defend me! ”

“ Sapt began to know exactly how far he could lead or drive, and when he must follow.
“We’re playing against time,” I added. “Every day we leave the King where he is there is fresh risk. Every day I masquerade like this, there is fresh risk. Sapt, we must play high; we must force the game.”
“So be it,” he said, with a sigh.
To cut the story short, at half-past eleven that night Sapt and I mounted our horses. Fritz was again left on guard, our destination not being revealed to him. It was a very dark night. I wore no sword, but I carried a revolver, a long knife, and a bull’s-eye lantern. ”

“ Sappho, of Lesbos, stands on the brink of the cliff, and at her feet kneels Phaon, of Mitylene. As they gaze seaward a group of young shepherds pass from the Temple, and a voice in the distance is heard singing. ”