Chandler's Soaps >> History Of Soap

History Of Soap

"As years went by, soap-making, once the housewife's task, became a great industry turning out vast quantities of soap made to an exact chemical formula."

For the first 150 years in America, soapmaking was the job of the woman of the house. The task was necessary, but long, hard and generally unpleasant.

To make soap you need some kind of oil and some kind of alkali: when mixed, they create soap. In those days, animal fats were the main source for the oil, and hardwood ashes were the preferred source for the alkali. Solid animal fats were rendered (cooked down) to remove impurities, resulting in tallow. Water was filtered through the hardwood ashes, then evaporated in iron pots to produce potash, the alkaline ingredient.

The tallow and potash were then mixed together (on a hit-or-miss basis), poured into molds, and allowed to cure for some weeks. If all went well, it came out soap: batches of crude, very harsh soap that was used for all the household's washing needs, from bodies to clothes.

"The first cake of Ivory Soap is delivered to the Company's store in 1879 by William A. Proctor, who did much of the early selling"

Later, some enterprising men came along who saw an opportunity in relieving homemakers of the soap-making chore. They bought the hardwood ashes and animal fats from the households, made the soap themselves, and then sold the finished product through traveling salesmen, general stores, and catalogs. These folks were known as Soap Chandlers.

As the chemical industry advanced, soap-making became mechanized and commercialized to the point where individuals rarely made soap any more. Additionally, it was found that glycerin, a natural by-product of the soap-making process, could be removed from the soap and used in other industries, such as foods, cosmetics, and munitions. (Ever heard of "Nitro-glycerin"?)

We harken back to the original soap chandlers (which is actually our family name, by the way) making soap in the old-fashioned way but with the benefit of the scientific progress over the last century, which isolated the exact technology and chemistry behind soap-making. It is no longer "hit-or-miss". We can tell exactly how to make a gentle, natural bar of soap, and that's what we make every time.

Definition: chand´-ler: a person who makes or sells candles or other items of oil or wax, such as soap.