When was soap invented? 2800 BC
Bathing goes way back - the ancient Egyptians were using a soap-like substance made from oils and salts as early as 1500 BC for treating skin issues and getting clean. Other ancient cultures caught on to similar cleaning mixtures too.
The word "soap" itself comes from an old Roman tale about a mountain called Sapo. Rain would wash over it, mixing with animal fats and ashes to create a muddy cleaning paste of sorts.
Italy, Spain, and France were real soap production hubs by the 7th century thanks to easy access to ingredients like olive oil in those areas. But soap's popularity took a nosedive across much of Europe after the Roman Empire collapsed in 467 AD. Poor hygiene helped enable horrific plagues like the Black Death to tear through medieval populations.
Some places still valued cleanliness though. The Japanese and Icelanders, for instance, commonly bathed and used natural hot springs in those days. England started commercially producing soap in the 1200s too, though it remained just a household chore in the American colonies until the 1600s.
It took until the 1700s for bathing and grooming to become fashionable again among Europe's wealthy. Soap was actually taxed as a luxury item in many countries well into the 1800s - only becoming widely available once those taxes got nixed and public health improved.
The real soap production revolution kicked off in 1791 when a French chemist figured out how to extract soda ash (a soap ingredient) from plain salt. Combined with new industrial tech, this let American soap making explode into a major booming industry by 1850.
The basic chemistry stayed the same until 1916. But soap supplies ran short during the World Wars, so chemists cooked up synthesized cleansers using different materials - paving the way for modern detergents as we know them.
What purpose did soap have originally?
Even though the general idea of soap today is to act as a cleaning agent, with different kinds of soaps available for different cleaning purposes, this wasn't the case historically.
And it wasn't even about personal cleaning and hygiene as well. Rather, it served as a cleaning substance to clean wool or cotton fibers before weaving them into cloth.
Another Roman legend, which hasn't been proved yet, also relates to the importance of soap for having much cleaner clothes.
Thus, it is confirmed that instead of using it for personal hygiene and body cleansing, soaps in ancient times served as cleaning substances for washing clothes.
Even the Roman and Greek civilizations which introduced the concept of running water and public bathing didn't use soap to clean their bodies. Both civilizations primarily used water only for cleaning their bodies during baths and then used scented olive oils for a pleasant smell.
What ingredients were used in soap originally?
From the very beginning till today, three basic ingredients in soap making have remained the same. These are – ashes or lye from it, fats, and grease or oils.
But what has evolved during this time, is how these basic ingredients get sourced or derived from.
For example, fats, grease, and oil in the early times came from slaughtered animals. Today, sodium hydroxide lye or lye is used, and oils and fats aren't sourced from animals anymore.
