Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1768-1889),chemist. He introduced a new series of organic substances to the chemistry literature and defined the saponification reaction scientifically. He defined the chemical composition of animal fats and influenced color theories and French painting techniques. There are several colored components that he isolated from trees. He carried out detailed research on the optical mixing of colors and produced color scales consisting of thousands of hues.
European Geography
During the French Revolution, soap production in Marseille and its surroundings increased to 3500 tons per year, the number of soap factories increased to 34, soap is now an export product, mostly sent to America. In the early 1800s, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered the method of treating soda, this discovery would lead to a serious increase in soap production, Louis Pasteur declared that good personal hygiene would reduce the spread of diseases.
In the 18th century, when Michel Eugene Chevreul, famous for his studies on chemical oils and contrasting colors, introduced the necessary chemical formulas, the era of modern soap production begins. Before this period, there were many foreign substances in the ash or natural soda solution used in soap making, so the soaps obtained were not of the desired purity and whiteness. At the end of the 17th century, two chemists, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc and the Scottish chemist James Keir, produced soda by purely chemical means, which would start a new era in soap production, but this method could not become widespread immediately because it was costly at first. However, in the history of soap production, the beginning of the period in which production will evolve from a simple household occupation or a handicraft as a craft to a commercially industrial industry has come.
The production of quality transparent soap begins in London in the early 18th century. However, in England, quality soap will remain a luxury item used only by the upper class elite for more than a century and will not reach the common people.
The French state, after the Napoleonic wars, puts a very high tax on soap, and then this high tax is abolished in 1853. After this decision, the state will have a tax loss of close to one million pounds, but the use of soap in the society will increase. In 1884, British Industrialist William Hesketh Lever (1851 – 1925) introduced the first packaged soaps in history to the market. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, soap production on an industrial scale will provide a great increase in the use of soap.
In 1863, Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay described the cheaper and easier-to-apply Solvay method, which has a complex method, which can be used to replace the Leblanc process, which can be performed with a large energy consumption. Thus, the cost of creating alkaline raw materials has decreased, and both the quality and quantity of the soaps produced have increased.
By the 19th century, industrial soda production, the use of steam power, developments in transportation, and the increase in social awareness of the importance of health rules will bring soap production to its peak in European cities.
With the Industrial Revolution, soap manufacturers began to increase their production capacity at the rate that steam production tools were invented. The demand for olive oil used as raw material becomes unmet. The problem is solved with the supply of oils to be used as raw materials from the colonial ports, so some changes are made in the soap production formulas. Soap production is accelerated by using new oils such as seed oils, tallow and coco oil. While vegetable oils are preferred as raw materials in the south of Europe, animal oils are preferred in the north, even fish oil is used. Soap culture is enriched by adding various essences and flowers to the liquid solution -soap paste- prepared for soap making.
Sodium carbonate soap production is common in factories in industries located in Mediterranean coastal cities such as Marseille and Genoa, so the output produced is in the "hard soap" type. In many parts of Europe, attempts have been made to convert soft potash soaps to hard sodium soaps with brine, but it is not known when this process was first made.
Ottoman State Geography
Both France and the Ottoman state textile and wool workshops (including Fez production) were in serious need of soap. At the beginning of the 1800s, 55% of the olive oil imports needed by the Marseille soap workshops were made from the Ottoman olive regions. Chania, the famous olive region of Crete, met more than 22% of this supply.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ottoman Empire facilitated financial regulations that required the transportation of ash, the main alkaline substance in soap. This policy will facilitate the transport of ash from the Homs and Hama deserts (in today's Syria) to Tripoli. Two-thirds of this ash shipment is legally allocated to the four state soap workshops established by the Ottomans in Tripoli. this app will become the heart of the local soap industry "Han al-Sabun" in Tripoli. At the end of this process, Tripoli soaps reach a point where they can reach points outside the Levant (Lebanon) and even beyond the Ottoman world.
The traditional way of soap production in the Ottoman lands was called "exhibition soap making", and the production was carried out in the so-called "soaphane". In this method, soaps were poured as molds. It was opened in the form of an exhibition on a wide floor, cut into molds, and the name of the craftsman and the workshop was printed on the soap with a wooden stamp. With the industrialization of production methods, the use of wooden stamp (soap seal) has decreased a lot, however, there are few small soap enterprises where it is still used.
While approximately 2 million tons of olives were harvested in Antakya, it is mentioned in historical records that more than 1 million 650 thousand tons of soap was produced.
Crete shows a significant development in the field of both olive oil and soap workshops, the number of soap workshops on the island of Crete, which was six in 1723, reached twelve in the 1750s and eighteen in 1783.
Soap Production in North America
The development of the soap industry in America will accelerate with innovations in the bacon and candle production sector. The spread of the butchery profession causes the people's habit of slaughtering their own animals to disappear, on the other hand, the discovery of the light bulb regresses the candle industry in which animal fats are used as raw material. The first of these two developments makes it easier to obtain wholesale oil from butchers, while the other causes an increase in the amount of oil reserved for soap production. In the first half of the 19th century, Cincinnati candle maker William Procter decided to give up the candle business and enter the soap business, this action, historically, with his partner James Gamble, the beginning of his transformation into the world's largest consumer products company [Procter & Gamble].
The company founded by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, who entered the industry by purchasing a small soap workshop in 1886, would turn into a global company known today as "Unilever".
Soap Culture Today
Over time, many chemical inventions, applications and technological developments developed for raw materials. The biggest reason for the widespread use of soap in the modern age is the fight against microorganisms, it has been understood that diseases and deaths can be reduced with cleaning habits and cleaning culture.
Today, rising awareness of the negative effects of synthetic additives and chemicals used in commercial soap making has begun to increase the supply of "traditional soap".
The production of olive oil soap with the traditional method is a difficult and laborious process based on intense manual labor and mastery, and an intense effort that takes days depending on weather and climatic conditions. In the production process, no artificial hardeners, foaming agents, preservatives and chemical fragrances and animal fat are not used.
Today, in addition to its use for cleaning and cosmetic purposes, a culture of medical treatment (acne, dandruff) and decorative purposes (ornamental soaps) has emerged.
Resources:
1. A Special Example from Turkish Cultural Geography: Turkish Soaps, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University Journal of Social Sciences Institute, October 2019, Dr. Güven Şahin, Istanbul University Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Geography.
5. Soap Shops in Turkey; Müge Çiftyürek, PhD Thesis, Art History Department, Art History Doctorate Program, Pamukkale University, Social Sciences Institute, 2021.
Doctoral Thesis, Art History Department, Art History Doctorate Program.
