Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BRITAIN AT WORK. 248 STAMPING TOILET SOAP. on an upper floor, run long wooden shoots, and down these the liquid soap is drawn off. At this stage some soaps are scented, some coloured, and some receive ingredients which result in cheapening them. But for most there is a direct road from the boiling pan to the cooling frame. 1 hese frames are about five feet high, and hold about fifteen hundredweight of soap. They are made of iron, the sides and ends being clamped to- gether so that they can be removed, leaving a solid block of soap ready for cutting up. The cooling process naturally depends on the weather, but it generally occupies four or five days. While the soap is standing in the frames slight pressure is applied to it from the top to solidify it completely. In a large factory, such as that of Messrs. Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight, the cooling room is an interesting and busy scene. When the frames have been removed from the solid soap, the workman sets about the cutting up of the great blocks. For this purpose he employs a machine consisting of an upright frame which is furnished with transverse wires, and these by means of a wheel and chain are drawn through the soap, cutting it up into slabs of the thickness desired. The slabs, creamy and beautiful, like new cheeses, are hurried along to an- other machine, where they are cut into bars. The mechanism which performs this operation is a lever frame on which are strung vertical wires that are drawn through the soap. The bars are after- wards piled in such a manner as to let the air circulate freely about them. A day or two of this exposure fits them for packing and for use. Here we may take leave of the laundry soap, or rather of those soaps that are put on the market without the artistic finish we associate with the usual toilet soap. When the further processes applied to the superior kinds of soaps are to be gone through the bars are conveyed to another department. Here, first of all, the soap is thoroughly dried. This is done by passing the bars into a machine which cuts them up into ribbons, and carries these ribbons along through hot air till the moisture is removed. At this stage the soap feels to the hand not unlike wood shavings. Scenting and colouring are the next opera. DRYING SOAP IN BARS.