Soapboiler

“ I did not in the last lecture by any direct experiment show that a soap-film or bubble is really elastic, like a piece of stretched india-rubber.
A soap-bubble consisting, as it does, of a thin layer of liquid, which must have of course both an inside and an outside surface or skin, must be elastic, and this is easily shown in many ways. Perhaps the easiest way is to tie a thread across a ring rather loosely, and then to dip the ring into soap water. On taking it out there is a film stretched over the ring, in which the thread moves about quite freely, as you can see upon the screen. ”

“ Outside, the snow fell softly, softly; and the bare trees shook their branches in the keen air. The pleasant glow of the blazing logs lighted up the circle of happy faces, and peopled the distant corners with elfin shadows.
All the afternoon the children, pipe in hand, with soap suds before them, had been blowing airy bubbles that caught the gleams of a hundred flying rainbows—but now in the fading daylight, the pipes were put aside, and they threw themselves down on the fur rug, and looked with thoughtful eyes into the caverns of the fire. ”

“ By and by we perceived what those super-delicate colors, and their continuous play and movement, reminded us of; it is what one sees in a soap-bubble that is drifting along, catching changes of tint from the objects it passes. A soap-bubble is the most beautiful thing, and the most exquisite, in nature; that lovely phantom fabric in the sky was suggestive of a soap-bubble split open, and spread out in the sun. I wonder how much it would take to buy a soap-bubble, if there was only one in the world? ”

“ An intimate acquaintance with every particular relative to the leys, is the one thing needful for a soap-boiler, being as it were the ground-work of the whole operation, and materially essential to be well understood, before any attempt ought to be made at soap-making. ”

“ Put four gallons of soap-fat that has been eaten with ley, in a barrel with eight gallons of strong ley, stir it two or three times a day, for a week or two, then fill it up with weaker ley, you may have several barrels making at a time, so as always to have some for use, it takes some time to make it in this way. But if you are careful, and once get ahead, you need not boil the soap unless you prefer it so, if your ley is not strong, dissolve potash in hot water and add to strengthen it. ”

“ If it sink below the top of the lye, it is too weak, and will never make soap; if it is buoyed up half way, the lye is too strong; and that is just as bad. A bit of quick-lime, thrown in while the lye and grease are boiling together, is of service. When the soap becomes thick and ropy, carry it down cellar in pails and empty it into a barrel.
Cold soap is less trouble, because it does not need to boil; the sun does the work of fire. The lye must be prepared and tried in the usual way. ”

“ A little meat with slow and regular boiling, will produce richer soup, than double the quantity, if the soup kettle be suffered to boil fast one quarter of an hour, and to stop boiling altogether the next quarter of an hour.—The fault most common in English soup is, the want of the juice of meat, caused by too quick and irregular boiling, to remedy which want, recourse is had to pepper, herbs, and wine. It is very easy to vary the sort of soup, by making a good clear stock, or what the French call bouillon, and the next or following days, flavour it, or add vegetable ingredients to your taste. ”

“ If we ask ourselves how it is that the liquid in the interior of one of these drops does not flow out, pressed as it is by the liquid above it, the answer is that everywhere the stretched skin presses it back. A soap-bubble too presses on the air in its interior, both the outside layers and the inside layers of the thin film being curved over the interior space. This is the reason that a soap-bubble blown on the bowl of a pipe will slowly collapse again if we remove the stem of the pipe from our mouth. ”

“ The boilings to be thus continued day after day, until the soap becomes thick, and of a strong consistence. Take then a little upon the forefinger, and after letting it cool a few seconds, press it with the thumb. If it squeezes into a thin, hard scale, the soap is fit, or ready, for finishing: if otherwise it appear greasy, and stick to the finger, and of a soft consistence, more leys must be added, and if that does not harden it, another boil must be given. But, in consequence of the former scaly-like appearance, give the pan a good hearty boil, and draw the fire. ”

“ 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, 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. ”

“ Samuel Unwin, and which is now expired; that soap-suds, after being used in scowering, washing, &c. may be rendered sufficiently strong to serve the same purposes, repeatedly, and even for the re-production of soap. He directs any quantity of the suds (when rendered useless by the foul or greasy matters they may hold in solution) to be boiled over a brisk fire; in consequence of which, a scum of grease, oil, &c. will rise to the surface. ”

“ Unless a soap-ley be rendered caustic, or deprived of its fixed air, it can have no natural attraction for vegetable or animal subtsances, such as oil, tallow, or grease of any kind, so as to convert them into a soap. For the sole purpose, therefore, of extracting the fixed air from the leys, do soapmakers use quicklime. Depriving the mild alkali of its fixed air, renders it caustic, or of a burning, corroding quality, and of that peculiar nature that instantly attach themselves to all greasy substances, and converts them into soap. ”

“ The French lay great stress upon two essentials in making soup successfully. First, it must not go below the boiling point, just a gentle bubbling, and, second, after once started, no water should be added. In making soup always use cold water to start with. Do not use salt or any seasoning, and heat slowly, keeping the pot closely covered.
Protein, which is the chief constituent of meat, is drawn into the liquid, making it very nutritious. Rapid boiling destroys the fine aroma and volatile oils, which escape in the steam. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is considered the best procedure to commence the pasting or saponification with weak lye.
In order to economise tank space, it is the general practice to store strong caustic lye (60° to 70° Tw., 33° to 37° B.) and to dilute it as it is being added to the soap-pan by the simultaneous addition of water.
Many manufacturers give all their soap a "brine wash" to remove the last traces of glycerine and free the soap from carbonates. This operation takes place prior to "fitting"; sufficient water is added to the boiling soap to "close" it and then brine is run in to "grain" it. ”

“ To obtain the knowledge necessary to complete a Soap-maker, must at all times be attended with a very considerable expence, besides the consumption of a large portion of time. No experienced Soap-boiler would consider it at all worth his attention, to undertake the instructing, in the fundamental principles of the art, any person under a premium of One Hundred Guineas, besides the benefit of the person's labour spent in the acquirement. ”

“ The cold process for manufacturing soap is the simplest method of soap making, and the equipment required is small when compared to the other methods. All the more expensive equipment that is necessary is a crutcher, a tank to hold the lye, frames, a slabber or cutting table, and a press. Yet, in spite of the simplicity of thus making soap, the disadvantages are numerous for the production of a good piece of soap. The greatest difficulty is to obtain a thorough combination of oil or fat and lye so that there will not be an excess of one or the other in the finished soap. ”

“ By some experiments lately made it has been found that the soup will be much improved if a small fire is made under the boiler, just sufficient to make its contents boil up once, when the barley and water are put into it, and then closing up immediately the ash-hole register, and the damper in the chimney, and throwing a thick blanket, or a warm covering over the cover of the boiler, the whole be kept hot till the next morning. This heat so long continued, acts very powerfully on the barley, and causes it to thicken the water in a very surprising manner. ”

“ The test is a thing so necessary for a soap-boiler, that it is impossible for him to conduct his operations with propriety without it; yet, I believe, there are hundreds in the trade that know nothing at all about it: be that as it will, I say, they ought to know it; nor can any man discover when a soap-ley is totally deprived of its alkali, without its assistance. ”

“ When the cave has stood the above time, loose the pin, and let the ley run briskly off. When all is off, stop up again, and fill with water, which may stand the half of the former time; the pin may again be loosed, and the leys allowed to run gently off, keeping the cave always filled up or supplied with water. It may be unnecessary here to remark, that we must hitherto be supposed as laying down directions to a person just going to commence soap-making, but perfectly ignorant of the operation, and that he is preparing every necessary agreeable thereto. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To carry out the process, the caustic potash and carbonate of potash are dissolved and placed in the kettle together with the soda lye, and the oils added. This is most satisfactorily accomplished by being finished the day before the boiling is begun. The next day the boiling is begun and water added to bring the soap up to the desired percentage of fatty acid, due allowance being made for the water formed by the condensation of the open steam in boiling. Care must be taken that the soap in the kettle does not swell and run over during the saponification. ”

“ Soap is one of the most valuable articles in domestic economy: its uses in various manufactures require no description. The ashes, refuse, or waste, remaining after this compound is made, furnish an excellent manure. (See vol. i. p. 27.) The suds, or water, in which soap has been dissolved, are of great service to gardeners; as they effectually destroy insects in hot-houses. ”

“ The kettle is boiled with open and closed steam, adding water very slowly and aiming to obtain a 220-225 per cent. yield or fatty acid content of the finished soap of 46 per cent. When the soap is finished a sample cooled on a plate of glass should be neither slippery or short, but should string slightly. The finished soap is run directly into barrels. [Pg 101]
A soap for wool throwing by the semi-boiled process may be made from olive oil foots in a crutcher thus:
The oil is heated to 180° F., the lye added and the mass stirred until it bunches, when it is dropped into barrels. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The tank of soapsuds, and the air-pumps to inflate the bubbles, were out of sight beneath, so that when the bubbles began to grow upon the floor of the platform it really seemed like magic to the people of Oz, who knew nothing about even the common soap-bubbles that our children blow with a penny clay pipe and a basin of soap-and-water.
The Wizard had invented another thing. Usually, soap-bubbles are frail and burst easily, lasting only a few moments as they float in the air; but the Wizard added a sort of glue to his soapsuds, which made his bubbles tough ”