Surprisingly soap is an extremely ancient product used by mankind. Despite the chemistry behind soap, there are clear evidences that people in the ancient Babylon (2800 B.C.) were using soap in their daily life and they knew how to produce it. At that time it is unclear if soap was used for hygienic purposes or rather used as an hair styling aid or rather as a support for writing incisions. More confirmations were found in Egypt about 1500 B.C. were clearly soap was produced and used for its hygienic properties for treating skin diseases and cleaning clothes.
The discovery of soap seems to be, as often happens, a rather casual event. Ancient populations were used to burn bodies of dead people and animals (both for religious and health precaution reasons) by using wooden funeral pyres. These rituals often took place in close proximity to a river where ashes were consequently dispersed. The combination of fat, ashes and water favored the so called saponification process that, needless to say, is the essence of soap. Soon and probably by accident, people discovered that bathing or washing clothes downstream gave much better results and proved to be much more effective with respect to upstream locations. Thanks to these observations, they soon established a correlation between the byproducts of cremation and the cleansing effects leading to the consistent use of the first soap-based products like for example clay extracted from the bottom of the river.
The use of soap was very common during the golden age of the Roman empire where public baths became quite common thanks to the diffusion of the aqueducts lines. Unfortunately with the decline of the Romans power, also the bathing tradition and the connected health benefits faded away. This was the prelude especially in Europe of a long period ending in the seventeenth century characterized by massive health problems and plagues. On he contrary the bathing tradition continued in countries like Japan and Island.
During the 17th century, soap started to be used again but only among a very restricted circle of rich and noble people. Soap became a luxury product.
Until World War I, the soap manufacturing process changed considerably thanks to a series of important discoveries that greatly helped improving the quality and stability of soap recipes: in particular methods for the production of lye (soda ash or sodium chloride) and the determination of the real relationship between the main soap constituents glycerine, fatty acids and alkali salts (thanks to Dr. Chevreul).
World War I represented an important turning point in the history of soap since the shortage of primary ingredients especially fats, pushed the research laboratories to develop alternative and completely artificial products that have been defined as detergents.
This leads us to the modern time with some important lessons learned: first of all soap is simply soap and not a detergent which instead is largely synthetic. Second, and perhaps the most amazing lesson is that today soap is regaining its importance among luxury products and reviving a strong bond with our ancestors that started to use soap six/seven thousand years ago! Yes, despite the fact that you are reading a blog using a modern computer, you are still using a product like a homemade soap bar which represents a milestone in the history of humanity whose tradition is passed on generation by generation since hundreds of years.
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