Millions from Waste

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

The total loss of soap incurred during the year in London alone through this affinity runs into stupendous figures. The water consumption for washing purposes in the metropolis, according to Mr. Townsend, F.C.S., is 7,000,000 gallons a day. Consequently, at least 105,000 pounds of fat slip down the drains during the course of every twenty-four hours without fulfilling any useful service. The value of this loss, according to the same authority, may be set down at £1,000,000—$5,000,000—a year. This represents sheer waste, because the fats escape without extending a fraction of benefit to any one. It represents that section which has merely allied itself to the pernicious salts to form the lime-soap. From the foregoing one can form some estimate of the wastage of soap annually incurred throughout the country from the mere union of 25 per cent. of the fat with the lime—this figure fluctuates according to the degree of hardness of the water. Certainly it attains a figure which baffles credulity.

Confirmatory evidence of this waste is forthcoming from every hand-basin, bath, and washing appliance. It is revealed in the repulsive-looking greasy grey curds streaking the sides of the vessel, and which the user in ignorance generally dismisses as dirt removed by the soap. The housewife and launderer are often perplexed by the yellowish tone which certain garments assume, and the harsh and stickiness incidental to flannel after being washed. These defects are directly due to the lime-soap. Its presence is additionally exasperating owing to its extreme tenacity and penetrative powers, which wellnigh defy removal, except by the aid of powerful agents, the use of which is to be deplored, because they precipitate further and peculiar worries and adversely affect the fabrics. In the textile industries, more particularly the woollen trade, the lime-soap is regarded as the greatest affliction upon the craft.

The question arises as to whether the lime cannot be removed from the water, or whether science can evolve a soap capable of hurling defiance at the lime. The solution to the first-named suggestion is distillation of the water before use, a tedious and costly operation, or the subjection of the water to a softening process to effect the removal of the lime before the soap be introduced. Great strides have been recorded in this last-named field, but, unhappily, the question of cost constitutes an adverse factor. Thus the true solution would seem to lie in the preparation of a soap capable of resisting the blandishments of the lime.

It was this particular solution which the two British chemists, to whom I have alluded, set out to discover, but many years of patient labour in the laboratory was necessary to register the first success. This was due to the fact that they set out upon quite an original and unexplored line of research. They recognized that the margarine industry must develop into one of the biggest industries of the country, and that, accordingly, the tendency would be to abandon the conversion of fats into soap owing to the heavier claims of the table, and the more remunerative return which would arise from such an industrial diversion. They were also aware of the fact that in preparing the fats for the table a certain proportion of residue must result. At that time there appeared to be no profitable field for the utilization of this waste. So they decided to conduct their investigations along the path which would admit of this refuse being employed.

The fatty constituent decided, they cast around for another staple which was indispensable to the process they had definitely resolved to perfect. For this they required protein, the governing principle being the perfection of a cereal soap, the nitrogenous compounds of which should be turned to cleansing duty. Proteins were available in infinite variety, but here again it was realized that it would be wanton waste to use an article likely to be in request to serve as food for man or beast. Then they discovered that there were ample quantities of protein running to waste from commercial neglect. Accordingly, they decided to utilize these materials. The third constituent was the soda which must enter into the composition of any and every soap, but this did not occasion the slightest anxiety.

Equipped with these three materials they set to work. Experiment was tedious, and progress was slow, due to the fact that research was being conducted in quite a new and unknown field, absolutely deficient of any previous experience to serve as a guide. The first success recorded was the preparation of a soap in the form of a meal or powder coinciding with their ideas. This was submitted to the most rigorous tests, and the results obtained were quite in accordance with expectations. When this soap is introduced into the water no coagulation of the fat with the lime occurs. In this way the lime soap enemy was completely vanquished. As a supreme test sea-water was tried, with which it was found to lather as readily and as easily as when employed with distilled water.

The discovery represented a sensational achievement. It proved that something was awry with the existing theories pertaining to the chemistry of soap. Technical tests were undertaken, and they proved just as startling, because effects diametrically opposed to standard theories were observed. Whereas ordinary soap is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol, the cereal soap, so-called because of the starch which enters into its composition, is soluble in water, but absolutely insoluble in alcohol. The position is reversed.

A new era in soap manufacture was thus ushered in. The discovery came as a bomb-shell to the soap-making world, and, because it could not be explained through prevailing long-accepted chemical laws pertaining to this subject, it was ridiculed in certain quarters. To aggravate the situation chemists, who set out to fathom the secret of the new process by rigorous analysis, found themselves baffled. They could not determine the bases employed owing to the chemical reaction which had taken place during the preparation of the article, and from the circumstance that it belongs to colloidal chemistry. To indicate how completely the trade was baulked it may be mentioned that the chemist attached to one soap manufacturer in this country, and who had been requested to analyse a sample, contemptuously dismissed the product not as a soap, but as a filler!

Undaunted by the flood of adverse criticism which they provoked, the inventors requested the industries to which soap is essential, and which were being harassed by the lime-soap bugbear, to subject the discovery to a commercial test. They did so, and were so surprised at the results obtained as to ask promptly for further supplies! It not only offered them the means to reduce their consumption of soap, but it performed the desired functions more efficaciously, and proved to be a complete panacea for the many ills which had heretofore afflicted the trade. So impressed were they by what the new detergent accomplished that they established its use in their works there and then, and to this day have never reverted to the article formerly used.

In the powder form the application of the cereal soap was somewhat restricted. Accordingly the inventors decided to produce it in the familiar tablet and bar form, to enable a wider appeal to be made, even to the home. As events proved it was far easier to attain the meal stage than to pass therefrom to the solid cake. In fact, at one time it seemed as if this desired end would never be consummated. It was only by dint of unflagging effort that success was ultimately secured, and the soap in tablet and bar form introduced to the market.