| Imagine a world without soap. Envision eating at a restaurant on plates with grease caked on them from last weeks special. Imagine that the chief at this restaurant has just gone to the bathroom with nothing but water to rince his hands. Along with this, you may enjoy being with your family pet, but i doubt you want his slobber on you lunch. When you try to picture a world without soap, try focusing on the idea that it would be a world plagued with infection and disease. |
| Soap has been around longer than may be expected. For thousands of centuries, people have had a desire for cleanliness and sanitation. Water just wasn't cutting it when it came time to wash away a weeks worth of oily grimme. Something was needed to dissolve greacy residue. |
| Egyptians in 1500 B.C. found this something that was so despritley needed to achieve cleanliness. Researchers have found inscriptions of Egyptians using soap to bathe. They made soap from animal and vegetable oils that were then mixed with alkaline and sodium carbonates. Their fomula produced a goopy substance that reportedly worked quite well and even treated skin diseases. From their writing, Egyptians appeared to bathe regularly and are believed to have been remarkably clean. |
| Soap |
| However, though the Egyptians have been found to be the first to have writen about using soap, researchers have found even earlier uses of the wonderful substance. Scientists have found a soap-like material stored away in clay jars dated back to 2800 B.C., 1300 years before the Egyptians. These jars were fround in the ruins of the anchient city of Babylon. Markings on the outside of the jar lead the reaserchers to believe that the substance was made by boiling animal fats with ashes. This material was also thought to be used as a hair styling syrum. |
| While the Egyptians and the people of anchient Babylon perferred soap as a means to get themselves clean, the Greeks enjoyed a different tequnique. They would scrub with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes. Following this prcedure, came a lather of oil. They would scrape the oil away with a tool that resembled a knife-like blade which is called a strigil. The Greeks only used soap to wash their clothes in a stream. |
| The use of soap flourished once more in 312 B.C., with the creation of the first Roman baths. Using water that was routed into the city from nearby streams, huge public baths were filled. From the construction of baths spawned the invention of indoor plumbing. The Romans used lead pipes to lead water and waste into and out of their homes. |
| The word plumbing came from the Roman work for lead--plumbum-- |
| In 467 A.D., the Roman Empire fell, and so did the use of soap in Europe. People were fithy and and their homes and food were unsanitary. During the Middle Ages, disease claimed the lives of many. |
| In 1347 A.D., soap had still not regained popularity in Europe. Italian traders spread the bubonic plague from China to Europe. Within only five short years, the "Black Death" as it had been called, exterminated one-third of Europe's population. |
| Finally, during the 17th century, people no longer yearned for the repulsing scent of body oder or the taste of germ infested food. However, at that time, soap was considederd a luxury as many could not afford it. Soapmakers kept their formulas secretive and made sure to it that their presious recipe was not peered upon by another's eyes. It wasn't until the 19th that soap became an item that most people could afford. |
| Over the waters from Europe, early pioneers in the United States used lye soap. It was quite hard to make. As tough as it was to make, it was equally as tough on their skin. It was not like the modern day mosturising soap or dish soap that is hard on greace but soft on hands. Their lye soap burned their eyes and skin. However, the materials in the lye solution were easy to find. The pioneers in America would mix the lye from ashes with pig fat oil. To get the lye from the ashes, they would pour water over the ashes and then they collected the water. They then filtered the water, removing the ashes. They collected the oil from boiling pig fat and then they would take the liquid fat. The oil and lye was combined and the result was soap. |
| The next time you find yourself at the sink washing your hands, think about what it took to make soap a house hold item. If it weren't for the people of Achient Babylon, we might just be sitting in our own filth, swimming in the overpowering aroma of year old B.O. that no common water could ever get rid of. The next time someone tells you to go wash your hands, just be thankfull that you have something to wash with. |
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