Soap

“ In medicating a soap the material used for this purpose is usually added at the mill. A tallow and cocoanut oil base is best adapted for a soap of this type. The public have been educated more or less to the use of colored soap to accentuate its medicinal value, and green is undoubtedly the most popular shade. ”

“ It is really a question to what use a soap is to be put, and at what price it may be sold. There is, of course, a difference in the appearance, form and color, and then there are soaps of special kinds, such as floating soaps, transparent soaps, liquid soaps, etc., yet in the ultimate sense they are closely allied, because they are all the same chemical compound, varying only in their being a potash or soda soap, and in the fatty acids which enter into combination with these alkalis. ”

“ Genuine Windsor Soap.—To make this famous soap for washing the hands, shaving, &c., nothing more is necessary than to slice the best white soap as thin as possible, melt it in a stew-pan over a slow fire, scent it well with oil of caraway, and then pour it into a frame or mould made for that purpose, or a small drawer, adapted in size and form to the quantity. ”

“ Stir 1/4 of a pound of Castile soap, and place it in a jar near the fire, pour over it 1/2 pint of alcohol; when the soap is dissolved and mixed with the spirit, add 1 ounce of glycerine, the same of oil of almonds, with a few drops of essence of violets, or ottar of roses, then pour it into moulds to cool for use. 2. A wineglassful of eau-de-cologne, and one of lemon-juice, two cakes of broken Windsor soap, mixed well together, when hard, will form an excellent substance. ”

“ To Make Good Soap.—To make matchless soap, take one gallon of soft soap, to which add a gill of common salt, and boil an hour. When cold, separate the ley from the crude. Add to the crude two pounds of sal-soda, and boil in two gallons of soft water till dissolved.26 If you wish it better, slice two pounds of common bar soap and dissolve in the above. If the soft soap makes more than three pounds of crude, add in proportion to the sal-soda and water. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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;” ”

“ 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. ”

“ I poured some very hot tap water into the roaster and shook in the strong soap powder. "This is to saponify the oil," I explained.
"What's saponify?" Lottie asked.
"That means to make soap. Soap is mainly a mixture of some caustic with fat or oil. It makes sudsy soap."
"But we got soap," she said. "Why don't you just use the soap we got?" ”

“ In purchasing an oil or fat for soap making, the manufacturer is usually interested in the amount of free fatty acid contained therein, of moisture, the titer, the percentage of unsaponifiable matter and to previously determine the color of soap which will be obtained where color is an object. ”

“ The materials employed in making mottled soap comprise bleached palm oil, tallow, bone fat, cocoa-nut oil, palm-kernel oil, cotton-seed oil, and, in some instances, rosin.
The choice of a charge will naturally depend upon the cost; the property of absorbing a large amount of liquor, which is characteristic of soaps made from cocoa-nut oil and palm-kernel oil, is taken advantage of, as are also the physical properties of the various fats and oils, with a view to the crystallisation of the resultant soap and the development of the mottle. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Homemade soap, however, usually proves very satisfactory. When the time consumed in making it is not needed for other duties or obligations, it is a saving to make soap at home.
SOAP 1 can Babbit's lye 1 quart cold water 6 pounds clarified fat 2 tablespoonfuls ammonia
Turn the lye into a granite kettle, slowly add the cold water, stirring with a stick or a wooden spoon. Work most carefully to avoid getting the lye or the lye solution on the hands. When the water is added to the lye, the mixture becomes very hot. Let it stand until it is cool.
Put the fat into a large kettle or dish pan. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Soft soap is made with potash and drying oils, either alone or mixed with tallow, and other coarse fatty matters. The fatty matter is mixed with the alkaline ley, and the whole boiled gently for some time, until the fat is completely saponified, which may be known by its becoming clear and transparent, and its susceptibility of being drawn into long threads. A quantity of common salt is then added to the boiling mixture, until the soap loses its thready character, and drops from the spatula in short thick lumps. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And for the better preventing the elandestine making of soap, without payment of the duties for the same; be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the said 20th day of September 1784, it shall be lawful for any officer or officers of Excise to take an account from time to time, as often as he or they shall think fit, by gauging, weighing, or otherwise, as to him or them shall seem most proper and convenient, of all tallow, oil, rosin, and grease of every kind, and of all materials for making soap, which any maker of soap shall at any time have in his possession ”

“ 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. ”

“ Or, to know if the soap have got enough of leys, dip the blade of the knife into the soap; and when coldish, stroak the soap off the knife upon your forefinger; observe if any streaks appear in the soap: if any, then the soap is plentifully supplied with leys; but if none, more leys must be added. It is always a good sign that soft soap is enough boiled, when, upon trial as above, with the soap on the finger, that it stands up, and appears with a thin roundish back; and when right, it will appear upon the finger of a grayish colour at the top of the outer edge. ”

“ Liquid Soaps.—Liquid soaps, or, as they are sometimes called, soap essences, are made from pure olive-oil soap by dissolving it in alcohol and adding some potassium carbonate. Tallow or lard soaps cannot be used, as they will not make a transparent preparation. The soap is finely shaved and placed with the alcohol and potassium carbonate in a vessel over a water bath, the temperature slowly and gradually raised, while the mixture is kept in constant agitation by stirring. The soap should be of a pure white color and the alcohol gives the best product when it is about 80 per cent strength. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The same soap is invaluable in a family for removing ink, fruit-stains, and even paint from the hands. The makers of the pumice soap, Robinson & Co., are also the manufacturers of the “silver soap,” for cleaning plate which has nearly superseded all plate-powders, whiting, etc., formerly used for this purpose.
Pumpkin Flour.
I remind myself, comically, while jotting down these items of domestic practicalities, of the lucky chicken of the brood, who, not content with having secured her tit-bit of crumb, seed, or worm, noisily calls the attention [395] of all her sisters to the fact. ”

“ 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 greater length of time the soap is kept, the better it will become. The grease used may be clarified by adding water and cooking a short time. Stand away and when cool remove fat from top, wiping off any moisture that may appear. Soap-making is a small economy. ”

“ They are now planed, and subjected to the proper mechanical treatment for making cakes of any form. The soap is coloured with strong alcoholic solution of archil for the rose tint, and of turmeric for the deep yellow. Transparent soaps, however pleasing to the eye, are always of indifferent quality; they are never so detergent as ordinary soaps, and they eventually acquire a disagreeable smell.
SOAPSTONE; see Steatite.
SODA, Caustic soda (Hydrate de soude, Fr.; Aetznatron, Germ.) ; is an alkaline substance, used in chemical researches, in bleaching, and in the manufacture of soap. ”

“ Among the necessities of life there is one to which few people pay the attention they ought, and that is Soap. Yet it is undoubtedly a most important matter, for the skin is a very delicate and sensitive organ, and the constant application of impure or inferior Soaps injures its texture, and gives rise to numerous cutaneous troubles. Most people are content, so long as it appeals to the eye and the sense of smell, without stopping to consider that perfumes may be employed to hide defects. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 condition of the soap is judged by observing the behaviour of a small sample taken from the pan and dropped on glass or iron. If the soap is satisfactory it will set firm, have a short texture and slightly opaque edge, and be quite clear when held towards the light. If the cooled sample draws out in threads, there is an excess of water present. If an opaque edge appears and vanishes, the soap requires more lye. If the sample is turbid and somewhat white, the soap is too alkaline and needs more oil. ”