!8: Wholesale Soap Making Supplies Sale Off: January 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Beautiful substance is soap. Because of this product we are able to keep our friends, family, and jobs. It also helps us to feel clean, happy, and healthy. So how long exactly has the human race been using soap?

It appears that soap making started with the Babylonians as far back as 2800 BC. This proof was found in a clay cylinder that contained a soap substance. There was also a Babylonian clay tablet dating 2200 BC that had a formula for soap on it.

The Egyptians also used soap. The Ebers papyrus states that they combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to make a type of soap. The Egyptians have other documentation stating that they used soap to help prepare the wool for weaving.

A Roman legend explains how soap received its name. The legend starts on Mount Sapo where animals were sacrificed to their Gods. The rain would carry the animal fat and ash down the mountain into the Tiber River's clay.

Women went to clean their laundry in the Tiber River. The women noticed that the clay mixture helped to get their laundry cleaner with less work. So soap received its name from the Mountain Sapo, but it is after all just a legend.

Most often the women did the soap making even as it continued through time. Europe produced a finer soap in the 16th century by substituting vegetable oil for animal fat. The first people to put vegetable oil, lye, and aromatic oils into soap were Chemists.

Soap making was done on a personal and small scale until the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution produced mass amounts of soap, but it also made soap cheaper and have a higher quality. Andrew Pears invented the first transparent soap in London of 1789.

The soap that is sold in most stores today is still manufactured. There are a few shops and boutiques that like to sell homemade soaps. Making soap is even a hobby for some people.