Soap
Used by many with little thought given as to how it is manufactured or how it came about.
Soap! The average person in the United States uses uses about 28 pounds of soap (and detergent) a year.
The difference between soap and a detergent is its cleaning capabilities. Detergents can penetrate soiled areas far more easily than soap.
Soap probably had its jump start as a preventative for health and cleanliness after the black plague or around the 17th century when there was a concerted effort to bath frequently to deter diseases.
Today as then, it is recognized that regular bathing prevents natural body oils and dirt from clogging the pores of the skin thus deterring skin diseases.
History suggests that some form of soap was used as early as 2800 BC. There are writings saying Egyptians bathed regularly with soap around 1500 BC. How much truth about soap uses at these times is unknown.
What is known and widely accepted is that oil (some perfumed) combined with perhaps sand, pumice; ashes and clay along with metal instruments were used extensively for hygiene. This could be the extension some view as the use of soap.
Soap making was limited to the home for hundreds of years. When soap manufacturing was finally realized the major centers for production were France, Italy and Spain around the year 800 AD.
Bar soaps became available at the end of the 18th century as advertising promoted it use and awareness to better health.
Limited soap manufacturing in the United States occurred around 1608.
Due to the ingenuity and inventiveness of a Belgian chemist (Earnest Solvay) soap manufacturing in the United States became one of the fastest-growing industries by 1850.
Milder soaps were introduced into the market place for bathing and there was a distinction made of soaps used for washing clothes and other cleaning chores around the early 1930s.
What is accepted in soap making is fatter is better. Super fatted soap is made because it feels better and is friendlier to the skin.
Sources of fat for soap making are from either vegetable oils or animal fats. Coconut, palm and olive oils are common sources.
Additives such as fragrance oils, oatmeal, herbs and a host of other elements are added to soaps to give consumers a variety of scents most pleasing to them.
Other additives include metals such as titanium powder; nickel, aluminum and silver are added at times to soap for the benefit of deep skin cleaning to reduce bacteria and skin odors. Of this group titanium powder is the most used and the others have very limited use.
Today there is extensive competition between large and small soap makers each vying for significant market share by providing consumers with products that are milder, colorful, scented and has improved cleaning ability.
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