Dissolve the soap in the water and when it cools down somewhat, add to the solution the ammonia water. Pour the solution into a flask of sufficient capacity (or holding about three times as much as the mixture) and add enough water to fill it about three-quarters full. Shake and add, a little at a time, under active agitation, enough benzine to make 100 parts. This constitutes the stock {646} bottle. To make up the mass or paste put a teaspoonful in an 8-ounce bottle and add, a little at a time, with constant agitation, benzine to about fill the bottle. This preparation is a rapid cleaner and does not injure the most delicate colors.

Dissolve the soap in 600 parts of water by heating on the water bath, remove, and add the ammonia under constant stirring. Finally add the benzine, and stir until homogeneous, and quite cold. The directions to go with this paste are: Rub the soap well into the spot and lay the garment aside for a half hour. Then using a stiff brush, rub with warm water and rinse. This is especially useful in spots made by rosins, oils, grease, etc. Should the spot be only partially removed by the first application, repeat.

Another variety of liquid glycerine soap is prepared from purified medicinal soft soap, 300 parts; glycerine free from lime, 300 parts; white sugar syrup, 300 parts; doubly rectified spirit (96 per cent), 300 parts. The mixture is scented with oil of cinnamon, 1 part; oil of sassafras, 2 parts; oil of citronella, ¹/₂ part; oil of wintergreen, 1 part; African geranium oil, 1 part; clove oil, ¹/₂ part; oil of bergamot, 3 parts; pure tincture of musk, ¹/₂ part. These oils are dissolved in spirit, and shaken up with the other ingredients; then left for 8 days with frequent shaking, and 3 days in absolute quiet, after which the whole is filtered, and is then ready for packing.

This makes a soapy paste soluble in all liquids, except fixed oils.

The solution of ammonium oleate is made from oleic acid and spirit of ammonia.

If an antiseptic soap is wanted the addition of a small amount of benzoic acid, formaldehyde, or corrosive sublimate will give the desired product. Liquid soaps should contain from 20 to 40 per cent of genuine white castile soap and about 2 to 2 ¹/₄ per cent of potassium carbonate.

This is a common formula:

Dissolve the potash in 1 ounce of water, heat the oil on a water bath, add the solution of potash previously warmed, and stir briskly. Continue the heat until saponification is complete. If oil globules separate out and refuse to saponify, the potash is not of proper strength, and more must be added—1 or 2 parts dissolved in water. If desired transparent add a little alcohol, and continue the heat without stirring until a drop placed in cold water first solidifies and then dissolves.

Commercial potash may be used, but the strength must be ascertained and adjusted by experiment. The soap thus made will be like jelly; it is dissolved in alcohol, 4 to 6 ounces of soap to 2 of alcohol, and after standing a day or two is filtered and perfumed as desired. A rancid oil would be easier to saponify, but the soap would likely be rancid or not as good.

II.—Ammonium sulphoichthyolate, 10 parts; distilled water, 15 parts; hebra’s soap spirit (a solution of potash soap, 120 parts, in 90 per cent spirit, 60 parts; and spirit of lavender, 5 parts), 75 parts.

Medicated Soaps.

First make up a suitable soap body and afterwards add the med­i­ca­ment. For instance, carbolic soaps may be made as follows:

Prepare the body soap by stirring the liquefied fat into the lye at 113° F., and when combination has set in, incorporate the phenol and quickly pour into molds. Cover the latter well. Instead of the phenol 2 pounds of sulphur may be used, and a sulphur soap made.

The oil is mixed in a large bottle with water, 100 parts; alcohol, 200 parts; and caustic soda, 45 parts, and after saponification the remaining alcohol and the potassium carbonate dissolved in the rest of the water, and finally the carbolic acid and the ether are added and the whole well shaken. The mixture is filled in tightly closed bottles and stored at medium temperature. The preparation may be scented as desired, and the carbolic acid replaced with other antiseptics.

II.—Cocoanut oil, 1,000 pounds; caustic soda lye, 37° B., 500 pounds; pine-needle oil, 4 pounds; artificial bitter almond oil, 2 pounds. There is also a “massage cream,” which differs from the ordinary massage soaps in being made with a soft potash soap as a ground soap. The oils, etc., incorporated with the ground mass are exactly the same in the “cream” as in the soap. {648}

Aluminum soap is the most important. Dissolved in benzine or oil of turpentine, it furnishes an excellent varnish. It has been proposed to use these solutions for the varnishing of leather; they furthermore serve for the production of waterproof linen and cloths, paper, etc. Jarry recommended this compound for impregnating railroad ties to render them weatherproof.

Manganese soap is used as a siccative in the preparation of linseed-oil varnish, as well as for a drier to be added to paints. Zinc soap is used in the same manner.

Copper soap enters into the composition of gilding wax, and is also employed for bronzing plaster of Paris articles. For the same purpose, a mixture is made use of consisting of copper soap and iron soap melted in white lead varnish and wax. Iron soap is used with aluminum soap for waterproofing purposes and for the production of a waterproof varnish. By using wax instead of a soap, insoluble metallic soaps are obtained, which, melted in oils or wax, impart brilliant colorings to them; but colored waterproof and weather-resisting varnishes may also be produced with them. Metallic rosin soaps may be produced by double decomposition of potash rosin soaps and a soluble metal salt. From these, good varnishes are obtained to render paper carriage covers, etc., waterproof; they may also be employed for floor wax or lacquers.

Petroleum Soap.—

Put the petroleum into a suitable vessel along with the wax and alcohol and cautiously heat on the water bath, with an occasional agitation, until complete solution is effected. Add the soap and continue the heat until it is dissolved. When this occurs remove from the bath and stir until the soap begins to set, then pour into molds.

II.—The hydrocarbons (as petroleum, vaseline, etc.) are boiled with a sufficient quantity of alkali to form a soap, during which process they absorb oxygen and unite with the alkali to form fatty acid salts. The resulting soap is dissolved in water containing alkali, and the solution is heated along with alkali and salt. The mass of soap separates out in three layers, the central one being the purest; and from this product the fatty acids may be recovered by treatment with sulphuric acid.

Shaving Soaps.

Melt the soap, color if desired, and incorporate the oils.

Melt the soap with just enough water to convert it into a soft paste when cold; dissolve the oils in the alcohol, mix with the paste, and rub up in a mortar, or pass several times through a kneading machine.

Soap Powders.

The raw materials of which soap powder is made are soap and soda, to which ingredients an addition of talcum or water glass can be made, if desired, these materials proving very useful as a filling. An excellent soap powder has been made of 20 parts of crystallized soda, 5 parts of dark-yellow soap (rosin curd), and 1 part of ordinary soft soap. At first the two last mentioned are placed in a pan, then half the required quantity of soda is added, and the whole is treated. Here it must be mentioned that the dark-yellow curd soap, which is very rosinous, has to be cut in small pieces before placing the quantity into the pan. The heating process must continue very slowly, and the material has to be crutched continually until the whole of the substance has been thoroughly melted. Care must be taken that the heating process does not reach the boiling point. The fire underneath the pan must now be extinguished, and then the remaining half of the crystallized soda is added to be crutched with the molten ingredients, until the whole substance has become liquid. The liquefaction is assisted by the residual heat of the first heated material and the pan. The slow cooling facilitates the productive process by thickening the mass, and when the soda has been absorbed, the whole has become fairly thick. With occasional stirring of the thickened liquid the mass is left for a little while longer, and when the proper moment has arrived the material contained in the pan is spread on sheets of thin iron, and these are removed to a cool room, where, after the first cooling, they must be turned over by means of a shovel, and the turning process has to be repeated at short intervals until the material has quite cooled down and the mixture is thoroughly broken. The soap is now in a very friable condition, and the time has now come to make it into powder, for which purpose it is rubbed through the wire netting or the perforated sieves. Generally the soap is first rubbed through a coarse sieve, and then through finer ones, until it has reached the required conditions of the powder. Some of the best soap powders are coarse, but other manufacturers making an equally good article prefer the finer powder, which requires a little more work, since it has to go through three sieves, whereas the coarse powder can do with one or at most two treatments. But this is, after all, a matter of local requirements or personal taste.

The powder obtained from the above-mentioned ingredients is fine and yellow colored, and it has all the qualities needed for a good sale. Instead of the dark-yellow soap, white stock soap can also be used, and this makes only a little difference in the coloring. But again white stock soap can be used, and the same color obtained by the use of palm oil, or other coloring ingredients, as these materials are used for giving the toilet soaps their manifold different hues. Many makers state that this process is too expensive, and not only swallows up all the profit, but some of the color materials influence the soap and not to its advantage.

Soft soap is used only to make the powder softer and easier soluble, and for this reason the quantity to be used varies a little and different manufacturers believe to have a secret by adding different quantities of this material. As a general statement it may be given that the quantity of soft soap for the making of soap powder should not overstep the proportion of one to three, compared with the quantity of hard soap; any excess in this direction would frustrate the desires of the maker, and land him with a product which has become smeary and moist, forming into balls and lumping together {650} in bags or cases, to become discolored and useless. It is best to stick to the proportion as given, 5 parts of hard and 1 part of soft soap, when the produced powder will be reliable and stable and not form into balls even if the material is kept for a long while.

This point is of special importance, since soap powder is sold mostly in weighed-out packages of one and a half pounds. Most manufacturers will admit that loose soap powder forms only a small part of the quantities produced, as only big laundries and institutions purchase same in bags or cases. The retail trade requires the soap powder wrapped up in paper, and if this has to be done the powder must not be too moist, as the paper otherwise will fall to pieces. This spoils the appearance of the package, and likely a part of the quantity may be lost. When the powder is too moist or absorbs easily external moisture, the paper packages swell very easily and burst open.

The best filling material to be employed when it is desired to produce a cheaper article is talcum, and in most cases this is preferred to water glass. The superiority of the former over the latter is that water glass hardens the powder, and this is sometimes done to such an extent, when a large quantity of filling material is needed, that it becomes very difficult to rub the soap through the sieves. In case this difficulty arises, only one thing can be done to lighten the task, and that is to powderize the soap when the mixed materials are still warm, and this facilitates the work very much. It is self-evident that friction under these conditions leaves a quantity of the soap powder material on the sieves, and this cannot be lost. Generally it is scraped together and returned to the pan to be included in the next batch, when it is worked up, and so becomes useful, a need which does not arise when talcum has been used as a filling material. Again, the soap powder made with the addition of water glass is not so soluble, and at the same time much denser than when the preparation has been made without this material. It is thus that the purchaser receives by equal weight a smaller-looking quantity, and as the eye has generally a great influence when the consumer determines a purchase, the small-sized parcels will impress him unfavorably. This second quality of soap powder is made of the same ingredients as the other, except that an addition of about 6 parts of talcum is made, and this is stirred up with the other material after all the soda has been dissolved. Some makers cheapen the products also by reducing the quantity of hard soap from 5 to 3 parts and they avoid the filling; the same quantity of soda is used in all cases. On the same principle a better quality is made by altering the proportions of soda and soap the other way. Experiments will soon show which proportions are most suitable for the purpose.

So-called ammonia-turpentine soap powder has been made by crutching oil of turpentine and ammonia with the materials just about the time before the whole is taken out of the heating pan. Some of the powder is also scented, and the perfume is added at the same time and not before. In most of the latter cases mirbane oil is used for the purpose.

These powders are adaptable to hard water, as their excess of alkali neutralizes the lime that they contain:

Make as dry as possible, and mix intimately.

Borax Soap Powder.—

Each ingredient is thoroughly dried, and all mixed together by sieving.

London Soap Powder.—

Toilet Soaps.

The question as to the qualities of toilet soaps has a high therapeutical significance. Impurity of complexion and morbid anomalies of the skin are produced by the use of poor and unsuitable soaps. The latter, chemically regarded, are salts of fatty acids, and are prepared from fats and a lye, the two substances being mixed in a vessel and brought to a boil, soda lye being used in the preparation of toilet soaps. In boiling together a fat and a lye, the former is resolved into its component parts, a fatty acid and glycerine. The {651} acid unites with the soda lye, forming a salt, which is regarded as soap. By the addition of sodium chloride, this (the soap) is separated and swims on the residual liquid as “kern,” or granulated soap. Good soaps were formerly made only from animal fats, but some of the vegetable oils or fats have been found to also make excellent soap. Among them the best is cacao butter.

From a hygienic standpoint it must be accepted as a law that a good toilet soap must contain no free (uncombined) alkali, every particle of it must be chemically bound up with fatty acid to the condition of a salt, and the resultant soap should be neutral in reaction. Many of the soaps found in commerce to-day contain free alkali, and exert a harmful effect upon the skin of those who use them. Such soaps may readily be detected by bringing them into contact with the tongue. If free alkali be present it will make itself known by causing a burning sensation—something that a good toilet soap should never do.

The efficiency of soap depends upon the fact that in the presence of an abundance of water the saponified fat is decomposed into acid and basic salts, in which the impurities of the skin are dissolved and are washed away by the further application of water. Good soap exerts its effects on the outer layer of the skin, the so-called horny (epithelial) layer, which in soapy water swells up and is, in fact, partially dissolved in the medium and washed away. This fact, however, is unimportant, since the superficial skin cells are reproduced with extraordinary rapidity and ease. When a soap contains or carries free alkali, the caustic effects of the latter are carried further and deeper, reaching below the epithelial cells and attacking the true skin, in which it causes minute rifts and splits and renders it sore and painful. Good soap, on the contrary, makes the skin smooth and soft.

Since the employment of poor soaps works so injuriously upon the skin, many persons never, or rarely ever, use soap, but wash the face in water alone, or with a little almond bran added. Their skins cannot bear the regular application of poor soap. This, however, applies only to poor, free-alkali containing soaps. Any skin can bear without injury any amount of a good toilet soap, free from uncombined alkali and other impurities. The habit of washing the face with water only, without the use of soap, must be regarded as one altogether bad, since the deposits on the skin, mostly dust-particles and dead epithelial cells, mingling with the oily or greasy matter exuded from the fat glands of the skin—excellent nutrient media for colonies of bacteria—cannot be got rid of by water alone. Rubbing only forces the mass into the openings in the skin (the sweat glands, fat glands, etc.), and stops them up. In this way are produced the so-called “black heads” and other spots and blotches on the skin usually referred to by the uneducated, or partially educated, as “parasites.” The complexion is in this manner injured quite as much by the failure to use good soap as by the use of a poor or bad article.

All of the skin troubles referred to may be totally avoided by the daily use of a neutral, alkali-free soap, and the complexion thus kept fresh and pure. Completely neutral soaps, however, are more difficult to manufacture—requiring more skill and care than those in which no attention is paid to excess of alkali—and consequently cost more than the general public are accustomed, or, in fact, care to pay for soaps. While this is true, one must not judge the quality of a soap by the price demanded for it. Some of the manufacturers of miserable soaps charge the public some of the most outrageous prices. Neither can a soap be judged by its odor or its style of package and putting on the market.

To give a soap an agreeable odor the manufacturers add to it, just when it commences to cool off, an etheric oil (such as attar of rose, oil of violets, bergamot oil, etc.), or some balsamic material (such as tincture of benzoin, for instance). It should be known, however, that while grateful to the olfactory nerves, these substances do not add one particle to the value of the soap, either as a detergent or as a preserver of the skin or complexion.

Especially harmful to the skin are soaps containing foreign substances, such, for instance, as the starches, gelatin, clay, chalk, gums, or rosins, potato flour, etc., which are generally added to increase the weight of soap. Such soaps are designated, very significantly, “filled soaps,” and, as a class, are to be avoided, if for no other reason, on account of their lack of true soap content. The use of these fillers should be regarded as a criminal falsification under the laws regarding articles of domestic use, since they are sold at a relatively high price, yet contain foreign matter, harmful to health. {652}

Recipes For Cold-stirred Toilet Soaps.

Pink Soap.—

Pale-Yellow Soap.—

Toilet Soap Powder.—

Soft Toilet Soaps.—Soft toilet soaps or creams may be prepared from fresh lard with a small addition of cocoanut oil and caustic potash solution, by the cold process or by boiling. For the cold process, 23 parts of fresh lard and 2 parts of Cochin cocoanut oil are warmed in a jacketed pan, and when the temperature reaches 113° F. are treated with 9 parts of caustic potash and 2 ¹/₂ parts of caustic soda solution, both of 38° Bé. strength, the whole being stirred until saponification is complete. The soap is transferred to a large marble mortar and pounded along with the following scenting ingredients: 0.15 parts of oil of bitter almonds and 0.02 parts of oil of geranium rose, or 0.1 part of the latter, and 0.05 parts of lemon oil. The warm process is preferable, experience having shown that boiling is essential to the proper saponification of the fats. In this method, 80 parts of lard and 20 parts of Cochin cocoanut oil are melted together in a large pan, 100 parts of potash lye (20° Bé.) being then crutched in by degrees, and the mass raised to boiling point. The combined influence of the heat and crutching vaporizes part of the water in the lye, and the soap thickens. When the soap has combined, the fire is made up, and another 80 parts of the same potash lye are crutched in gradually. The soap gets thicker and thicker as the water is expelled and finally throws up “roses” on the surface, indicating that it is nearly finished. At this stage it must be crutched vigorously, to prevent scorching against the bottom of the pan and the resulting more or less dark coloration. The evaporation period may be shortened by using only 50 to 60 parts of lye at first, and fitting with lye of 25° to 30° strength. For working on the large scale iron pans heated by steam are used, a few makers employing silver-lined vessels, which have the advantage that they are not attacked by the alkali. Tinned copper pans are also useful. The process takes from 7 to 8 hours, and when the soap is finished it is transferred into stoneware vessels for storage. Clear vegetable oils (castor oil) may be used, but the soaps lack the requisite nacreous luster required.

Transparent Soaps.

The mode of production is the same for all. The fats are melted together, sifted into a double boiler, and the lye is stirred in at 111° F. Cover up for an hour, steam being allowed to enter slowly. There is now a clear, grain-like soap in the kettle, into which the sugar solution and the alcohol are crutched, whereupon the kettle is covered up. If cuttings are to be used, they are now added. When same are melted, the kettle will contain a thin, clear soap, which is colored and scented as per directions, and subsequently filled into little iron molds and cooled.

Rose-glycerine Soap.—

Benzoin-glycerine Soap.—

Sunflower-glycerine Soap.—

Miscellaneous Formulas: