Classification of Soaps.
In considering the many different varieties of soaps, their classification is purely an arbitrary one. No definite plan can be outlined for any particular brand to be manufactured nor can any very sharp distinction be drawn between the many soaps of different properties which are designated by various names. It is really a question to what use a soap is to be put, and at what price it may be sold. There is, of course, a difference in the appearance, form and color, and then there are soaps of special kinds, such as floating soaps, transparent soaps, liquid soaps, etc., yet in the ultimate sense they are closely allied, because they are all the same chemical compound, varying only in their being a potash or soda soap, and in the fatty acids which enter into combination with these alkalis. Thus we can take a combination of tallow and cocoanut oil and make a great many presumably different soaps by combining these substances with caustic soda, by different methods of manufacture and by incorporating various other ingredients, as air, to form a floating soap, alcohol to make a transparent soap, dyestuffs to give a different color, etc., but essentially it is the same definite compound.
The manufacturer can best judge the brand of soaps he desires to manufacture, and much of his success depends upon the name, package, shape, color or perfume of a cake of soap. It is the consumer whom he must please and many of the large selling brands upon the market today owe their success to the above mentioned details. The great majority of consumers of soap know very little concerning soap, except the fact that it washes or has a pleasant odor or looks pretty, and the manufacturer of soap must study these phases of the subject even more carefully than the making of the soap itself.
For a matter of convenience we will classify soap under three general divisions:
I. Laundry soaps, including chip soaps, soap powders and scouring soaps.
II. Toilet soaps, including floating soap, castile soap, liquid soap, shaving soap, etc.
III. Textile soaps.