The origin of soap, it is suggested, comes from the infusion of animal fats and ash from the cooking and sacrificial fires of ancient Babylonian hunters. Babylonian clay tablets, dating from 2200BC, have been found containing a recipe for soap made up of water, alkili and cassia oil.

One myth, ancient Roman in origin, suggests that soap from Mount Sopa, poured into the Tiber.
This soap came from the remnants of the ash and fat of burnt animal sacrifices mixing together and being washed down the slopes by rain water. The local women quickly discovered the soaps wondrous cleaning powers whilst washing the family togas.

Pliny the Elder, natural philosopher and raconteur, writes, in his great work Historia Naturalis (77AD), on the subject of pomades, a tallow fat and ash concoction, used like a hair wax by Germanic and Gallic men.
Pliny also tried this early Brylcreem, but was not impressed.

They must have looked like mutton dressed as lamb - they would certainly have smelt like it!

Pliny was lucky (sic) enough to have seen and recorded the events at Pompeii in 79AD and it is at this place that history again suggests the common usage of soap when excavations revealed a pot containing a soap like substance.
Scholars now believe that this substance was, in fact, soapstone and used in the laundry to finish cloth like a modern day conditioner.

Soap, and washing in general, fell into decline with the exception of the Middle-East, where, as we have seen, soap and soap like substances have been made for millennia.

The addition of aromatic oils such as thyme oil, colors, and the newly discovered lye, Sodium Hydroxide, were perfected by Persian chemists, and are the unchanged basis for soap making.

Ancient Arabic soaps, such as Nablus are still available today.

Nablus soap, made by elderly women in the city from at least the 14^th century, would, at harvest time, use the last year%u2019s remainder of olive oil to make Nablus soap.

It was exported throughout the Mediterranean and even reached England, where it was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth the First.

One middle-eastern recipe, taken from the 13^th century, gives the following advanced formula:

Take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix them all together and boil. When cooked, pour into molds and let set, leaving hard soap.

In modern times, Nablus soap has suffered, with factories being destroyed by Israeli incursions %u2013 in fact, only one factory remains today.

Soap making, as Europe emerged from the dark ages, was a woman%u2019s kitchen chore where women would make potash from a hardwood fire and combine it with tallow.

The emergence and popularity of Castille soap was the next revolutionary step in the soap process.

Castille soap was made from olive oil, instead of animal fat, and when brine was added to the mix, the impurities and lye were easily skimmed off by the soap-boiler. The resulting bar of white soap was then aged to improve its quality.

Castille soap was exported across Europe and is found in records arriving in London in 1567.

A similar soap, made from olive oil and sea water, is the Marseille soap and its popular recipe was given protection by Louis X1V in order to preserve the brand name.

The same soap is still available today and the same law still protects it.

Again, little changed in soap making until the Industrial Revolution and new innovative processes were developed in England. At the forefront of these advances was the Cornishman, Andrew Pears.

After opening a barber-shop in fashionable Gerrard Street, in London, he noticed the need for a more delicate and refined soap for the delicate and refined skins of Londons elite. He developed as soap with natural oils and pure glycerin that was clear and produced longer lasting bubbles. London high society was soon in a lather over this wondrous product and Pears developed a unique fragrance of Cedar and Thyme which is still manufactured today.

At the same time, soap makers, such as William Gossage, were astonishing the lower class English with cheap bars of mottled soap and he even won prizes at the Great Exhibition.

Robert Hudson was manufacturing soap powder from a mortar and pestle, as was William Lever, founder of today%u2019s Lever Brothers, the soap making giant.

Pears Soap became the first and oldest ever registered brand and advertising on posters, radio and television made the world awash with Pears, Unilever et al.

We leave this short history of soap to todays innovative, skilled and design oriented makers to write the next chapter

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