Soap suds

“ Through the acid properties of the fats, the oleine, stearine, margarine, etc., which they contain, combine with the alkali to produce the saponified compound.
Hard soap is made with soda; soft soap with potash. The more oleine in the fat, the softer the soap; the more stearine the harder. Rosin is also largely used, sometimes to the extent of one-third the weight of the soap. It increases its hardness, makes it dissolve easier in water and forms a more copious lather.
The Most Economical Soap. Soap may be two-thirds water and still remain solid. Even dry, hard soap contains 20 or 25 per cent. ”

“ Soaps are distinguished into two great classes, according to their consistence; the hard and the soft; the former being produced by the action of soda upon fats, the latter by that of potash. The nature of the fats contributes also somewhat to the consistence of soaps; thus tallow, which contains much stearine and margarine, forms with potash a more consistent soap than liquid oils will do, which consist chiefly of oleine. The drying oils, such as those of linseed and poppy, produce the softest soaps. ”

“ Soft water is better than hard for fabrics.
What Soaps Are Made Of. Common Yellow Bar Soap contains soda with fat and rosin. White Soap consists of tallow and soda. Castile Soap is made of olive oil and soda. Common Fancy Soaps are mainly ordinary soap colored and scented. Real Brown Windsor Soap is made of goat tallow, olive oil and soda. Transparent Soaps are those which have been dissolved in alcohol. Fine Toilet Soaps are made with as little alkali as possible, of almond, palm or olive oil, suet, lard, etc., colored and perfumed. ”

“ The only thing which will render it easy of removal is soap, as by its action it softens the oily material and dislodges it from the skin. Soap has acquired an evil reputation which it certainly does not deserve, and if it disagrees it is either due to the fact of its being an inferior article, or else the skin itself must be at fault. The best soap to use is the white, not the mottled, Castile, as it is made from pure olive oil. By the proper and judicious use of soap the skin is kept soft and natural, and the complexion is maintained in the hue of health. ”

“ Shaving Soaps and Creams are made either with soda or potash, of fine tallow or cocoanut oil, which has the property of making a strong lather. Mottled Soaps owe their variegations of color to the use of iron oxides. It is said that these cannot be effectively applied if the soap contains an excess of water, and that more skill is required to make good blue mottled soap than any other. The more any soap is worked over, or remelted, cooled, etc., the better it becomes. ”

“ This very useful article is produced by a combination of tallow or oil with soda or potash; with soda, hard soap is formed; with potash, soft soap. The yellow soap of commerce has also an addition of resin or turpentine, and often palm oil, these give it its yellow color and peculiar smell; pure white soap is made by boiling a solution of soda with tallow or olive oil; ordinary soaps are generally made by mixing a solution of the soda of commerce, (carbonate of soda) with quick lime, this takes away the carbonic acid and makes the soda what is called “caustic;” ”

“ Its property of absorbing large proportions of water, up to 80%, and yet present the appearance of a hard solid body, makes the material a basis for the hydrated soaps, smooth and marbled, in which water, sulphate of soda, and other alkaline solutions, soluble silicates, fuller's earth, starch, &c. play an important and bulky part. Coco-nut soap also forms a principal ingredient in compound soaps meant to imitate curd and yellow soaps. Two principal methods of preparing such compound soaps are employed. ”

“ Effects of Strong Soap on Fabrics. Soap must not be strong enough to injure fabrics or discharge colors, yet sufficiently powerful to render grease and dirt soluble, so that it may be washed away in water. Rosin soap hardens the fibers of wool, and alkalies, if used to excess, shrink woolen fabrics. 54Hard water, or that containing lime or magnesia, more or less decomposes soap, and it floats on the surface as a greasy scum. But if an oily film rises to the top of soft water, it shows that the fat in the soap is not all saponified. ”

“ Yellow Soap is a soda soap, of tallow, resin, of lard, &c. &c.
Palm Soap is a soda soap of palm oil, retaining the peculiar odor and color of the oil unchanged. The odoriferous principle of palm oil resembling that from orris-root, can be dissolved out of it by tincturation with alcohol; like ottos generally, it remains intact in the presence of an alkali, hence, soap made of palm oil retains the odor of the oil.
The public require a soap that will not shrink and change shape after they purchase it. It must make a profuse lather during the act of washing. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII. Soap, Candles, Tallow Tree, Spermaceti, Wax, Mahogany, Indian Rubber or Caoutchouc, Sponge, Coral, Lime, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Gas, Hydrogen, Chalk, and Marble.
Of what is Soap composed?
Of soda or potash, and various oily substances; it is so useful for domestic and other purposes, that it may be regarded as one of the necessaries of life; immense quantities of it are consumed in all civilized countries. Soft soap is generally made of a lye of wood-ashes and quicklime, boiled up with tallow or oil; common household soap of soda and tallow, or of potash and tallow ”

“ Two tons of tallow should yield three tons of white soap. In making the same quantity of common brown or yellow soap, twelve hundred weight less is required, on account of the substitution of that amount of yellow rosin.
17. The mottled appearance of some soaps is caused by dispersing the ley through it, towards the close of the operation, or by adding a quantity of sulphate of iron, indigo, or the oxide of manganese. Castile soap, now manufactured in the greatest perfection at Marseilles, in France, receives its beautifully marbled appearance from the sulphate of iron. ”

“ Almost any fatty substance can be employed in soap-making; but the choice is naturally restricted by the price of the fat and also the quality of the soap desired. The most important of the animal fats are those of the ox and hog, and of the vegetable oils cotton-seed and coco-nut; it is also to be remembered that resin, although not a fat, is also important in soap-making. Ox and sheep tallow, with the addition of resin, are the primary materials for making the hard yellow or primrose soaps ”

“ Yellow Soap consists of a mixture of any hard fatty soap with a variable proportion—up to 40% or more—of resin soap. That substance by itself has a tenacious gluey consistence, and its intermixture in excess renders the resulting compound soft and greasy. The ordinary method of adding resin consists in stirring it in small fragments into the fatty soap in the stage of clear-boiling; but a better result is obtained by separately preparing a fatty soap and the resin soap, and combining the two in the pan after the underlye has been salted out and removed from the fatty soap. ”

“ The finest white soaps are made of olive oil and a lye consisting of soda and quicklime; perfumes are sometimes added, or various coloring matters stirred in to give the soap a variegated appearance. The ancient Greeks and Hebrews appear to have been acquainted with the art of making soap, or a composition very similar to it; and also the ancient Gauls and Germans. A soap-boiler's shop, with soap in it, was found in the city of Pompeii, in Italy, which was overwhelmed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A.D. 79. ”

“ Of the colors producing green directly the two tar colors, Victoria and brilliant green, are to be noted; these give a bright color, but fade rapidly; thereby the soap acquires an unsightly appearance. For opaque soap of the better grades, green ultramarine or chrome green are used. Gray and black are produced by lampblack. For brown, there is Bismarck brown among the aniline colors and umber among the earthy pigments.
Garment-cleaning Soap.—The following is excellent:
Dissolve the soap in the water and when it cools down somewhat, add to the solution the ammonia water. ”

“ Tablet or Washer Type.—A demand has arisen for soap of free lathering qualities, which has become very popular for general household use. This soap is usually made from a mixture of cotton-seed oil, tallow, and cocoa-nut oil, with a varying amount of rosin. The tallow yields firmness and durability whilst the other constituents all assist in the more ready production of a copious lather. ”

“ The acid component of the grease partially neutralizes the base, and a new substance is formed, namely, soap.
With the advance of civilization the labor of soap making passed from the home to the factory, very much as bread making has done in our own day. Different varieties of soaps appeared, of which the hard soap was the most popular, owing to the ease with which it could be transported. Within the last few years liquid soaps have come into favor, especially in schools, railroad stations, and other public places, where a cake of soap would be handled by many persons. ”

“ Such an article gets the name of little-pan soap, on account of the small quantity in which it is usually manufactured. Hard soap, made in the common way, is, on the contrary, called large-pan soap. This extemporaneous compound is now seldom or never made by respectable manufacturers. In making Windsor soap, the admixture of olive oil is advantageous; because, being richer in oleine than suet, it saponifies less readily than it, and thus favours the formation of a more perfect neutral combination. ”

“ The palm oil is first run into the kettle, saponified and washed to extract any glycerine, then the rest of the fats and finally the rosin. The soap is then finished and settled as with a boiled settled soap. To assure success it is absolutely necessary that the soap settle as long a period as possible, or until the temperature is about 150 degs. ”

“ Var. The principal varieties of soap found in commerce are:—
Almond Soap (Sapo amygdalinus) , made from almond oil and caustic soda, and chiefly used for the toilet.
The P. Codex gives the following formula for its preparation:—Solution of caustic soda (1·334) , by weight, 10 oz.; oil of almonds, by weight, 21 oz.; add the lye to the oil in small portions, stirring frequently; leave the mixture for some days at a temperature of from 64° to 68° Fahr., stirring occasionally, and when it has acquired the consistence of a soft paste, put it into moulds until sufficiently solidified. ”

“ Soap is a very important product to every branch of the textile industry. For woolen fabrics it is used for scouring, fulling and throwing the wool; in the silk industry it is necessary for degumming the raw silk, as well as for dyeing; in the cotton mills it is used to finish cotton cloth and to some extent in bleaching; it is, furthermore, employed in a number of ways in the manufacture of linen. Large quantities of soap are thus consumed in an industry of so great an extent and the requirements necessitate different soaps for the different operations. ”

“ A cheaper and better plan is to substitute the ‘soft soap’ of the Ph. L. (‘soap made with olive oil and potassa’) for the Castile soap ordered by the College. The soft soap of commerce imparts to the liniment an unpleasant smell. The following formula, one of those commonly adopted by the wholesale druggists, produces a very good article, though much weaker than that of the Pharmacopœia.
6. (Wholesale.) Camphor (cut small) , 11⁄2 lb.; soft soap, 7 lbs.; oil of rosemary, 3 fl. oz.; rectified spirit of wine and water, of each 31⁄2 galls.; digest with occasional agitation for a week, and filter. ”

“ Several barrels of soap can be made from one ley stand. A large oil cask is good to keep soap in. If a barrel leaks, set it under a spout in a rain, or fill it with water. It is of the greatest importance to keep the soap-fat in strong ley. Have an oil barrel in the cellar, half full of strong ley, and put in cracklings, bacon skins, pot skimmings, beef bones, or any scraps, when eaten by ley it will take but little boiling. It is much the easiest and safest way, where there are children, to make the soap without boiling. ”

“ The presence of cotton-seed oil is denoted by a pink coloration. The reaction is rendered much more rapid, according to Rupp (Z. Untersuch. Nahr. Genussm., 1907, 13, 74) , by heating in a stoppered flask.
Other bodies which it is occasionally necessary to test for or determine in soap include:—
Carbolic acid.—Fifty grammes of the soap are dissolved in water and 20 c.c. of 10 per cent. caustic potash added. The solution is treated with an excess of brine, the supernatant liquor separated, and the precipitate washed with brine, the washings being added to the liquor withdrawn. ”

“ Colouring Matter.—During recent years an outcry has been made against highly coloured soaps, and the highest class soaps have been manufactured either colourless or at the most with only a very delicate tint. It is obvious that a white soap guarantees the use of only the highest grade oils and fats, and excludes the introduction of any rosin, and, so far, the desire for a white soap is doubtless justified. Many perfumes, however, tend to quickly discolour a soap, hence the advantage of giving it a slight tint. ”

“ Since the employment of poor soaps works so injuriously upon the skin, many persons never, or rarely ever, use soap, but wash the face in water alone, or with a little almond bran added. Their skins cannot bear the regular application of poor soap. ”

“ The lower half of a barrel of home-made soap is always the strongest. Soft soap, made with clean grease and good potash is of a light nankeen color, and is better for washing flannels and white clothes than any other. ”

“ Curd Soaps.—Tallow is largely used in the manufacture of white curd soaps, but cocoa-nut oil sometimes enters into their composition.
The first three operations above described, viz., pasting, graining out, and boiling on strength, are proceeded with; the clear boiling by means of a closed steam coil is continued until the "head" is boiled out and the soap is free from froth. A sample taken and cooled should be hard. ”