The advantages of milled soap over toilet soap produced by other methods are that the former, containing less water and more actual soap, is more economical in use, possesses a better appearance, and more elegant finish, does not shrink or lose its shape, is more uniform in composition, and essential oils and delicate perfumes may be incorporated without fear of loss or deterioration.
Only soap made from best quality fats is usually milled, a suitable base being that obtained by saponifying a blend of the finest white tallow with a proportion, not exceeding 25 per cent., of cocoa-nut oil, and prepared as described in Chapter V.
The first essential of a milling base is that the saponification should be thorough and complete; if this is not ensured, rancidity is liable to occur and a satisfactory toilet soap cannot be produced. The soap must not be short in texture or brittle and liable to split, but of a firm and somewhat plastic consistency.
(i.) Drying.—The milling-base, after solidification in the frames, contains almost invariably from 28 to 30 per cent. of water, and this quantity must be reduced to rather less than half before the soap can be satisfactorily milled. Cutting the soap into bars or strips and open piling greatly facilitates the drying, which is usually effected by chipping the soap and exposing it on trays to a current of hot air at 95-105° F. (35-40° C.).
There are several forms of drying chambers in which the trays of chips are placed upon a series of racks one above another, and warm air circulated through, and Fig. 21 shows a soap drying apparatus with fan made by W. J. Fraser & Co., Ltd., London.
The older method of heating the air by allowing it to pass over a pipe or flue through which the products of combustion from a coke or coal fire are proceeding under the floor of the drying chamber to a small shaft, has been superseded by steam heat. The air is either drawn or forced by means of quickly revolving fans through a cylinder placed in a horizontal position and containing steam coils, or passed over steam-pipes laid under the iron grating forming the floor of the chamber.
Fig. 21.—Soap-drying apparatus.
It will be readily understood that in the case of a bad conductor of heat, like soap-chippings, it is difficult to evaporate moisture without constantly moving them and exposing fresh surfaces to the action of heat.
In the Cressonnières' system, where the shavings of chilled soap are dried by being carried through a heated chamber upon a series of endless bands (the first discharging the contents on to a lower belt which projects at the end, and is moving in the opposite direction, and so on), this is performed by intercepting milling rollers in the system of belts (Eng. Pat. 4,916, 1898) whereby the surfaces exposed to the drying are altered, and it is claimed that the formation of hardened crust is prevented.