US history blog: Evolution of Soap

The Evolution of Soap

Soap has evolved greatly since the origins of its invention in every way. The making of soap has been a fickle, changing process from the ingredients, to the prices, to the targeted consumers of it. However, it has remained steadfast in its purpose: hygiene and the cleaning of oneself. Thus, while many important aspects of the soap industry have been unable to remain the same throughout the centuries, the most significant aspect of it has: people's desires to feel clean and the need for hygiene. Thus, keeping the soap industry in business.

Originally, soap was not at all how we think of it today. Until, the 18th century soap was not even attainable to the middle and low class cause it was viewed as such a luxury. It was extremely high priced due to the fact it was produced by small-scale artisans because of a lack of industrial manufacturing. (Stenders) Also, Great Britain imposed a heavy tax and created many restrictions on soap which vastly drove up it's cost. (Chagrin) Thus, making it a symbol of wealth and class. For example, during the Tudor period, rich women would use castill soap daily for cleaning themselves. (Chagrin)

The notion of soap as a luxury item did not begin to change until 1791 when French chemist, Nicholas Leblanc, discovered how to turn common salt, sodium chloride, into soda ash (sodium carbonate), the main ingredient in soap. (Soap History.net) This revelation was so monumental, it completely changed the United States and Europe's view of hygiene as a whole. It put bathing into fashion and made people more hygienic due to the fact soap could now be produced much cheaper. Then, when Gladstone repealed the British tax soap in 1853, soap was reduced in price even more. (Chagrin) The industrial revolution also aided in this complete turnaround by giving the ability for soap manufactures to produce it in mass quantity. And, with the plumbing advances of running water and drainable bathtubs the soap industry flourished and soap started to become a household product. (Open Learn)

With the help of the Industrial Revolution, the soap industry became extremely profitable and soap became a mass consumed product. This is partly in due to greater production efficiency because of Proctor and Gamble's patented soap-making process: the continuos process. (Chagrin) The continuos process was able to decrease production time to less than a day which had never been done before and created the ability to mass produce soap. (Chagrin) Also, chemists could finally add appealing scents to the soap which before did not always smell the best due to ingredients like animal fat. (Soap History) The soap market also flourish in part to the invention of dynamite. Dynamite was made from nitroglycerine, a chemical derived from glycerin, and glycerin is a main product in soap. (Open Learn) Thus, soap producers could see this nitroglycerine to turn a profit because it was a waste product from soap making.

The soap industry as a whole became extremely profitable due to World War 1 which created what we think of as commercial soap. (Open Learn) The mass-scale use of soap as a disinfectant became so prevalent on the battle fields due to war injuries and unsanitary conditions. (Open Learn) This created a certain hygienic standard by which soldiers abided by and then brought home to their families; thus sharing and spreading their adoption of healthy habits. Proctor and Gamble caught onto this trend of the significance of soap and began to dedicate advertisement campaigns all to soap and spent more than $400,000 a year on this (equivalent to $10 million currently). (Realm of History) Soap ads like these had become so prevalent that radio serials were nicknamed "soap operas" because of the soap manufactures sponsoring them. (Realm of History) Thus, by the 20th century commercial soap had become a household necessity due to advertisement campaigns, the readily cheap accessibility of it in stores, the precedent standard of hygiene from WW1, and the ability for it to be mass produced because of the industrial revolution.