SCOURING AND FULLING SOAPS FOR WOOL.

The soaps used to scour wool and for fulling the woven cloth are usually made as cheaply as possible. They are, however, generally pure soaps, as filling material such as sodium silicate does not readily rinse out of the wool and if used at all must be added very sparingly. Both cold made and boiled settled soaps are made for this purpose. The soap is generally sold in barrels, hence is run directly to these from the crutcher or soap kettle. As cold made soaps the following serve for wool scouring or fulling.

I.
Palm Oil200 lbs.
Bone Grease460 "
Soda Lye, 36° B.357 "
Water113 "
Soda Ash50 "
Citronella2 "
II.
Palm Oil (Calabar, unbleached)155 "
House Grease360 "
Soda Lye, 36° B.324 "
Water268 "
Sodium Silicate83 "
III.
House Grease185 "
Palm Oil (unbleached)309 "
Soda Lye, 36° B.309 "
Water391 "
Soda Ash70 "
Sodium Silicate60 "
Corn Starch10 "

These soaps are made in a crutcher by the usual process for cold-made soaps, crutched until smooth, dropped into a barrel and crutched by hand the next day or just before cooling.

As a settled soap for these operations the following charge is typical:

Palm Oil34 parts
Cottonseed foots or its equivalent in fatty acids33"
Rosin10"
House Grease23"

The method of boiling such a soap is the same as for any settled soap up to the strengthening change. When this stage is reached, sufficient lye is added to strengthen the kettle strongly. It is then boiled down with closed steam on salt brine or "pickle" until a sample of the lye taken from the bottom stands at 16°-22° B. The soap is then run into barrels and after standing therein for a day is hand crutched until cool to prevent streaking of the soap.

Besides a soap of this type a settled tallow chip soap is used.