When was soap invented?

Answer 1

Although no one really knows who or when soap was discovered, there are various legends surrounding it's beginning. According to Roman legend, soap was named after Mount Sapo, an ancient site of animal sacrifices. After an animal sacrifice, rain would wash the animal fat and ash that collected under the ceremonial altars down the slopes to the banks of the Tiber River. Women washing clothes in the river noticed that if they washed their clothes in certain parts of the river after a heavy rain their clothes were much cleaner. Thus the emergence of the first soap - or at least the first use of soap.

A soap-like material found in clay cylinders during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800 B.C. Inscriptions on the cylinders say that fats were boiled with ashes, a soap-making method.

Moses gave the Israelites detailed laws governing personal cleanliness. Biblical accounts suggest that the Israelites knew that mixing ashes and oil produced a kind of hair gel. Soap is mentioned twice in The Bible, but it is generally agreed that the Hebrew word "borith", which has been translated as soap, is a generic term for any cleansing agent.

By the second century A.D., the Greek physician, Galen, recommended soap for both medicinal and cleansing purposes.

Bathing habits all over Europe rose and declined with Roman civilization. When Rome fell in 467 A.D., so did bathing. It's said that the lack of cleanliness and poor living conditions contributed to the many plagues of the Middle Ages.

Not until the seventh century did soapmakers appear in Spain and Italy where soap was made with goat fat and Beech tree ashes. During the same period, the French started using olive oil to make soap. Eventually, fragrances were introduced and specialized soaps for bathing, shaving, shampooing, and laundry began to appear. King Louis XIV of France apparently guillotined three soapmakers for making a bar that irritated his very sensitive Royal skin.

The English began making soap during the 12th century. In 1633 King Charles I granted a 14 year monopoly to the Society of Soapmakers of Westminster. In the reign of Elizabeth I, soap consumption in England was greater than in any other European country. It seems that Queen Bess set the fashion herself, for it was reported that the Queen took a bath every four weeks "whether it was necessary or not." Just as the soap industry was gaining momentum in England, it became the subject of a series of restrictions and crippling taxation. It was not until 1853 that Gladstone abolished the tax on soap.

It wasn't until the 18th century that bathing came into fashion. In 1791, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to extract soda from common salt. Around the same time, Louis Pasteur proclaimed that good personal hygiene would reduce the spread of diseases.

By the beginning of the 19th century, soap making was one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. Rural Americans made homemade soap using a process from the Colonial times. They would save ashes from their fires for months. When they had enough fat left over from butchering hogs they would make soap.