A Brief History of Soap??

Soap is something that we take for granted now a days but it wasn't always that way. Not everyone had soap so readily available to them in the shower or at the sink, so where did this wonderful cleaner come from and who invented it?

The earliest record of soap dates back to 2800 BC in Babylon where a recipe was recorded on stone. It is again seen in ancient Egypt where they used both animal and vegetable oils mixed with alkaline salts to create a soap like substance for bathing. They also used this substance for making wool for weaving. The actual word soap doesn't appear until the first century AD where it is written in "Historia Naturalis" as the word sapo, Latin for soap. It is believed that the word sapo comes from Mount Sapo where many animal sacrifices took place, and tallow from these sacrifices would then be mixed with the ashes to produce soap. Although this is only a story and the Romans never wrote of such a thing.

Aelius Galenus better known as Galen of Pergamon was a prominent Roman physician, who in 300 AD in one of his works describes soap and soap making. He tells of how lye is used and prescribes it for washing away the impurities from both the skin and clothes. He goes on to state how the best soaps were German made.

By the second half of the 15th century the manufacture of soap began to boom, by 1525 there were 2 factories in France producing soap. Finer soaps began to be produced and the knowledge of hygiene had spread. Advertising campaigns promoted popular awareness of the relationship between being clean and being healthy. The soap makers began to use more vegetable fat in their soap and less animal fat. Many of these soaps are still produced today.

Until the industrial revolution soap making was conducted on a small scale and the soap was rough and unrefined. In 1789 Andrew Pears began making high quality soap in London and in 1862 his son in law opened a factory. Soon many people were making soap all over the world. William Hesketh Lever and his brother James founded what is still one of the largest soap businesses in 1886. Then called lever brothers you now know it as Unilever.

Today soap is poured into many different molds and made with many different oils and fats. It is fragranced and colored to appeal to many different people. Although it is made in much the same way as it once was. Can you imagine a world with out soap?