Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

244 THE LABORATORY AT PORT SUNLIGHT (MESSRS. LEVER BROTHERS’ WORKS). SOAP-MAKING. IIEBIG once laid it down that “the quantity of soap consumed by a nation would be no inaccurate measure whereby to estimate its wealth and civilisation. Of two countries with an equal amount of popula- tion, we may declare with positive certainty that the wealthiest and most highly civilised is that which consumes the greatest weight of soap.” Having regard to this remarkable dictum, we cannot but regret that no data are available by which to gauge, by this standard, the relative civilisation of the countries o£ the world. One is tempted to think, however, that like most generalisations it is not of universal application, and that it has its prominent exceptions. We can hardly be accused of insular pride and arro- gance when we claim that Britain has been notable for wealth and civilisation, and yet it seems as if this country were by no means first in the field as regards the common employment of soap. In view of the scarcity of evidence, it would, however, be rash to assert that Britain maintained a scrupulous cleanliness before the introduction of soap. At any rate, our forefathers were evidently as well washed as other civilised humanity. It is a national comfort to read, for example, the naive words of an observant foreigner who travelled in Britain in the early days of the eighteenth century. “ English men and women,” he remarks, “ are very clean, . . . not a day passes by without their washing their hands, arms, faces, necks, and throats in cold water, and that in winter as well as summer.” The history of soap is heavily shrouded in the mists of the past. Its origin is a fruit- ful theme for speculation. It is mentioned in the Old Testament, but what has there been translated “ soap ” is taken to mean merely “ alkali.” The name is derived from the Celtic word “ sebon,” and from that it has been supposed that it is to the Celtic peoples we owe the article itself. This view is somewhat strengthened by the fact that the earliest mention of soap is a reference by Pliny to its existence among the Gauls, who prepared it from goat’s fat and the ashes of the beech tree. Among the ruins of Pompeii was found a soap factory, with a quantity of soap in a perfect state of pre- servation. According to one writer, the date of the introduction of soap into Britain was somewhere about the fourteenth century. Before that time it would appear as if fullers’ earth was one of the principal detergents employed. Indeed, we find it was regarded as so valuable that it was macle contraband and its exportation illegal. Of the development of the manufacture and use of soap there is little known. As