Washing machine

A washing machine is a device used for washing dirty laundry. It contains a barrel into which the clothes and other textiles are placed. This barrel is filled with water, and then rotated very quickly to make the water remove dirt from the laundry.

HISTORY

Ancient peoples cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with abrasive sands; and washing the dirt away in local streams.

Rain washed a mixture of melted animal fat, or tallow, and wood ashes down into the clay soil along the River Tiber. Roman women found that this clay mixture made their wash cleaner with much less effort.

The earliest washing "machine" was the scrub board invented on March 28, 1797. The patent for "washing cloaths" was issued to Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire.

Early washing machines from the 19th century were made of wood and were hand cranked; the washing was carried out in a tub by a reciprocating plunger or paddle.

19th-century Metropolitan washing machine. By User:Itub 

American inventor James King patented the first washing machine to use a drum in 1851, the drum made King's machine resemble a modern machine, however it was still hand powered.

Hamilton E. Smith of Philadelphia is credited by many with inventing the rotary washing machine. In 1858, he received a patent for cycling reheated water in a washing machine. Five years later Smith received a patent dated July 28, 1863 for the reciprocating mechanism to reverse the movement of the revolving drum in the washing machine.

The inventor William Blackstone of Indiana built a washing machine as a birthday present for his wife in 1874. It was a wooden barrel that contained laundry immersed in soapy water, which when turned by hand machine removed and washed away dirt from clothes. This piece of equipment went on sale and Blackstone became the world’s first washing machine manufacturer, with each unit selling for $2.50 ($59.99 in today’s money).

A vintage German model. Wikipedia

Chicago engineer Alva John Fisher is credited by some for inventing the domestic electric washing machine in 1908. However, electric washing machines had been advertised and discussed in newspapers four years earlier. Fisher's machine was a drum type with a galvanised tub and was powered by a small electric motor. It was fitted with a self-reversing gearbox to ensure the clothes were not compacted into a solid mass. Fisher's invention was marketed as the 'Thor' by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago, and was the forerunner of the modern washing machine.

The 'twin-tub' washing machine introduced in the 1950s had a separate compartment containing a spin-drier. This is a perforated metal cylinder that spins on its axis at high speed, centrifugal force flinging the water out of the washing.

Maytag made the last hand-operated wringer washing machine in 1983. Most other companies had stopped making them years earlier.

The first microchip-controlled automatic washing machines were introduced in 1978. By the early 1990s, most upmarket machines incorporated microcontrollers for the timing process. These proved reliable and cost-effective, so now most machines incorporate microcontrollers rather than electromechanical timers.

The first computer-controlled consumer washers appeared in 1998 when New Zealand-based company Fisher & Paykel introduced its SmartDrive washing machine line in the US. This washing machine uses a computer-controlled system to determine load size and to adjust the wash cycle to match.

FUN WASHING MACHINE FACTS

Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano declared that the washing machine has done more to liberate women than the Pill, abortion or the right to work.

A portion of the fourth movement of Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet is used in some Samsung washing machines, to signal the end of a cycle.

A new washing machine in India has a button for curry stains.

A man in Fuqing, China, was repairing a washing machine when he got his head stuck inside the drum. The fire department spend 40 minutes sawing him out.

Sources Thoughtco, Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999

Vacuum cleaner

A vacuum cleaner is a cleaning device that uses an air pump  to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt from floors and carpets.

HISTORY

One of first devices that cleaned carpets was invented in a Chicago basement in 1869 by Ives W. McGaffey. A wood and canvas contraption, the "sweeping machine" required the user to crank a handle while pushing it along the floor as it sucked up dust. McGaffey obtained a patent for the machine on June 5, 1869, calling it the Whirlwind.

An early hand-pumped vacuum cleaner By Royalbroil

In 1900 Hubert Booth of Glasgow, Scotland demonstrated the principle of extracting dust from carpets by suction. He patented his device on August 30, 1901. Soon after, he coined the phrase “vacuum cleaner”, in calling his business “The Vacuum Cleaner Company Ltd”.

Earlier sucking cleaners had been patented but Booth's was the first not to rely on manual power. His first models used oil but later electricity was used.

Hubert Booth's sucking cleaning device looked nothing like a modern vacuum cleaner. The five horse-power motor and pump were so enormous that they were mounted on a horse-drawn carriage, while long tubes up to 25 yards long reached into the building that was being cleaned.

Hubert Cecil Booth Straßenstaubsauger von 1901. Wikipedia 

Booth later introduced clear tubes so clients could watch in awe as the dirt was sucked out of their homes.

Booth's cleaner was affectionately known as “Puffing Billy”.

Booth's Vacuum Cleaning Co provided the first mechanical cleaning service. However, his first vacuum cleaner was extremely noisy and frightened passing horses, which led to Booth being sued by cab proprietors.

The making of Hubert Booth's vacuum cleaner was the 1902 coronation of Edward VII of the United Kingdom during which his invention cleaned the blue carpets of Westminster Abbey. The king and queen were sufficiently impressed to order two cleaners- one for Windsor Castle, the other for Buckingham Palace.

As a result of the King's purchase of the device, society hostesses threw parties in their homes so guests could watch Booth's vacuum cleaner in action.

In 1907, James Murray Spangler, a janitor in a Canton, Ohio department store, deduced that the carpet sweeper he used was the source of his asthma. He tinkered with an old fan motor and attached it to a soap box stapled to a broom handle. Using a pillow case as a dust collector on the contraption, Spangler invented a portable electric vacuum cleaner.

Sprangler received a patent for his device in 1908, and formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company.

One of the first buyers was a cousin, whose husband, William H. Hoover owned a saddle and leather company in New Berlin, Ohio. Sprangler sold his patent to Hoover, who made improvements which produced the first truly portable upright vacuum cleaner.

Hoover founded the Electric Suction Sweeper Company with $36,000 capital, retaining Spangler as production supervisor. After Spangler's death in 1915, the company name was changed to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company.

Early electric vacuum cleaner by Electric Suction Sweeper Company, circa 1908

The device resembled a bagpipe attached to a cake box. But sluggish sales were given a kick by Hoover's 10 day, free home trial and the catchphrase "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans". Eventually there was a Hoover vacuum cleaner in nearly every American home.

In 1956, the English composer Malcolm Arnold wrote his A Grand, Grand Overture for 3 Vacuum Cleaners, 1 Floor Polisher, 4 Rifles and Orchestra. He dedicated it to former US President Herbert Hoover.

In the late 1970s, Norfolk-born inventor English inventor James Dyson had the idea of using cyclonic separation to create a vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt. Dyson went through 5,127 prototypes in five years while his wife Deirdre supported them and their three children by working as an art teacher. He eventually launched his bagless cleaner in 1983.

FUN VACUUM CLEANER FACTS

Some of the first vacuum cleaners were coal powered and were so big, they needed three people to operate them.

Scandinavian vacuum cleaner manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Vacuum is one of three words in the English language with two "u's" in consecutive order: the other two are residuum and continuum.

In the US, there are about 15,000 vacuum cleaner-related accidents each year.

An hour of vacuuming burns about 180 calories.

The Book of Firsts by Ian Harrison, Unbelievable Facts by Geoff Tibballs, Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999, Thoughtco, Daily Express,

Unilever

Unilever is one of the world's largest conglomerates. It is controlled by two parent Unilever holding companies, one based in London, the other in Rotterdam.

Unilever R&D Centre in Port Sunlight, United Kingdom. By Rept0n1x

In 1885 William Hesketh Lever (September 19, 1851 – May 7, 1925) with his brother James bought a small soap works in Warrington in North West England and founded Lever Brothers as a factory to make soap.

Lever Brothers began manufacturing Sunlight Soap, the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap. They were one of the first companies to use glycerin and vegetable oils such as palm oil, rather than tallow to manufacture soap.

Lever Brothers built a substantial business empire with many well-known brands such as Lux and Lifebuoy. They created Lifebuoy soap in 1895 and sold it as an antiseptic soap. Lever Brothers first coined the term "B.O." for bad odor as part of their marketing company for the soap.

In 1887, William Lever bought some land on the Wirral in Cheshire between the River Mersey and the railway line at Bebington. This site became Port Sunlight where he not only built his works but also a model village to house his employees adjoining the soap factory. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500 with high architectural standards and many community facilities.

An example of Port Sunlight architecture.By Rich Daley,

Lever Brothers began margarine production 1914. The spread had originally been created in 1869 by the French Province chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès. Two years later he sold the patent to Antoon Jurgens a company based in Oss, Netherlands. Through a series of mergers Jurgens' company became Margarine Unie in 1927. Unilever was founded on September 2, 1929, by the merger of Margarine Unie and Lever Brothers.

During the second half of the 20th century Unilever increasingly diversified from being a maker of products made of oils and fats, and expanded its operations worldwide.

Unilever's American business Lever Brothers of U.S. began manufacturing detergents after World War II. Surf detergent was introduced in 1952 by Crosfields of Warrington, a subsidiary company of Lever Brothers in the United Kingdom, and introduced to the US seven years later.  It became so popular in some parts of the world that 'surf' is the word for detergent in Urdu.

In 1978, National Starch was acquired by Unilever for $487 million, marking the largest ever foreign-acquisition of a US company at that point.

Unilever acquired about 80 companies during 1980s including Brooke Bond (makers of PG Tips tea) in 1984 and Chesebrough-Ponds (maker of Ragú, Pond's, Aqua-Net, Cutex, and Vaseline) in 1987.

Unilever promotes realistic body images in its Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" commercials but uses skinny female models to promote its Axe line of products to men.

Today, Unilever owns over 400 brands, and reported a turnover of €60.8 billion in 2024.

Unilever is the world's biggest ice cream maker. It sells $4 billion under its Heartbrand name –known as Wall's in the UK. It also owns ice cream brands Ben & Jerry's, Klondike, Popsicle and Breyers.

Towel

A towel is a cloth or absorbent paper used for drying a body or wiping clean a surface.

Pixiebay

The word towel occurs twice in the King James Bible. Both times it appears in chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, which describes how Jesus washed his disciples' feet then used using a towel to wipe their feet dry.

Bath towels were traditionally invented in the city of Bursa, now in Turkey, which was the capital of the Ottoman State in the 14th-century.

Charles Dickens was the first to use towel as a verb rather than a noun in 1865. He wrote in Our Mutual Friend, II. iii. iv. 25, "I mean to apron it and towel it.."

Hand towels (the paper variety) were invented in 1907 by Arthur Scott of Philadelphia. They were invented to stop the spread of the common cold in school classrooms. Paper towels for kitchen use followed in 1931.

Early paper towels. Wikipedia

The phrase "throw in the towel" meaning to concede defeat was first recorded in 1915. The allusion is to boxing, in which a trainer would throw a towel into the ring to admit that his man had lost. Before that it was "throw up the sponge",

Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy that a towel "is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

Towel Day was first observed on May 25, 2001, two weeks after Douglas' Adams' death at the age of 49. On this day, fans carry towels with them as a way to remember Adams and his work.

Boxing promoter Don King charged Mike Tyson $8,000 a week for towels.

Towels are a central part of the culture in Belarus, even appearing on the country's flag. At a traditional Belarusian wedding, the bride walks to the church dragging a towel.

Source Daily Express

Toothpaste

Toothpaste is a paste, powder or gel applied to the bristles of a toothbrush in order to help clean and maintain the aesthetics and health of teeth.

Pixiebay

People who lived around the Mediterranean in the 5th millennium BC chewed a gummy substance called mastiche, derived from the resin of the mastic tree, which grew primarily in Greece and Turkey. They found it to be an effective tooth cleanser and breath freshener. 

The ancient Egyptians developed the first toothpaste, which was a crude mixture of powdered ashes of hooves of oxen, myrrh, powdered and burnt egg shells and pumice. They rubbed it on their teeth with their fingers.

A later toothpaste developed in Egypt was a mixture of iris flowers, mint leaves, pepper and powdered salt. 

The Roman toothpaste was mainly a more primitive, less tasty version using urine as a prime ingredient (the ammonia in it was an excellent cleaner). 

The ancient Chinese used baking soda or chalk as toothpastes.

Tooth powders for use with toothbrushes came into general use in the 19th century in Britain. Most were homemade, with chalk, pulverized brick, or salt as ingredients.

Taft's Myrrahline, to preserve and beautify the teeth, give healthy tone to the gums 

In New York City Colgate & Company became in 1873 the first company to market aromatic toothpaste in America. 

Originally toothpaste was sold in jars, then later metal tubes. In 1880, Doctor Washington Sheffield of New London, Connecticut introduced the first collapsible toothpaste tube, Dr. Sheffield's Creme Dentifrice. They were similar to the tubes that had just been introduced for artist's oil colors and Sheffield had the idea after his son traveled to Paris and saw painters using paint from tubes. 

Sixteen years later  Colgate & Company introduced its Dental Cream was packaged in collapsible tubes imitating Sheffield. 

FUN TOOTHPASTE FACTS

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, which was the name of a notorious pornographic magazine.

Toothpaste contains formaldehyde which is the same chemical used to preserve dead bodies.

Almost all major toothpaste brands contain sodium lauryl sulfate (also sodium dodecyl sulfate), an inexpensive lathering agent that is a known cause of canker sores. The sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste suppresses sweetness receptors, which is why orange juice and other juices taste so bad after brushing your teeth. In contrast, apples are known to taste more pleasant after using toothpaste. 

Toothpaste is sold in many brands.

The blob of toothpaste that sits on your toothbrush is called a "nurdle". 

In 2005, Zhonghua toothpaste unveiled the largest ever tube of toothpaste in Shanghai City, China. It was 9.7 ft long and weighed 1,719 lb.

Toothbrush

The toothbrush is a tool used to clean the teeth, gums, and tongue.

HISTORY

Before the toothbrush, people used an assortment of implements to keep their teeth clean. Ancient civilizations cleaned their teeth by rubbing twigs or pieces of wood against them. Chewing sticks, birds' feathers and porcupine quills have also been discovered in the excavated remains of the earliest bathrooms. 

In medieval Europe few brushed their teeth, and those who did generally used horse hairs. It was customary after meals to use a silver or copper toothpick, or else a goose feather. 

The first bristle toothbrushes, resembling the modern toothbrush, were made in China during the Tang Dynasty (619–907). Spines were plucked from the neck of a Siberian wild boar and set into a bone handle.

Toothbrushes were introduced to Europe through merchants and travelers in East Asia during the 17th century. French dentists were the first Europeans to promote their use.

The earliest identified use of the word toothbrush in English was in the autobiography of Anthony Wood who wrote in 1690 that he had bought a toothbrush from J. Barret.

Europeans found the hog bristle toothbrushes imported from China too firm and preferred softer bristle toothbrushes made from horsehair.

A horsehair toothbrush said to have been used by Napoleon By Science Museum London

Mid-18th century colonial Americans used to brush their teeth by rubbing soot and salt over them with a rag. 

An English rag trader, William Addis, produced the first mass produced toothbrush in 1780. After being sent to prison in 1770 for inciting riots, Addis decided that the way people were brushing their teeth could be improved. He saved a small animal bone from a meal that he had eaten the previous night, made a hole and tied through it some bristles that he'd obtained from a guard.

After his release, Addis set up a business to mass-produce toothbrushes and became very wealthy. His company, Wisdom Toothbrushes, still exists.

Source of picture http://madeupinbritain.uk/Toothbrush

Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles on February 24, 1938. They proved sturdier and more efficient than bristles of natural origin – generally wild boar bristles. They were introduced on the US market under the name “Doctor West’s Miracle Tuft Toothbrush."

Squibb Pharmaceutical introduced America's first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, at the centennial of the American Dental Association in 1959. The original electric toothbrush had been developed 20 years earlier in Switzerland. 

FUN TOOTHBRUSH FACTS

Dentists recommend that toothbrushes be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

The little rubber thingy at the end of a toothbrush is called a "stimulator tip."

The most popular toothbrush color is blue.

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, forgot her toothbrush and had to brush her teeth with her finger.

Of the 6.8 billion people on the earth, only 3.5 billion of them use a toothbrush.

Pixiebay

Over 1 billion toothbrushes are discarded in the US each year, which is enough to circle the globe four times.

Toilet paper

Toilet paper is a tissue paper, used to wipe urine or feces after using the toilet. It is usually sold in white rolls, made up of square sheets.
 

Pixiebay

HISTORY

For a long time people had no toilet paper and instead they used other things to clean themselves after bodily fluid releases. The Greeks, for example, used stones or human hair.  

In ancient Rome instead of toilet paper, all public toilets had a sponge attached to the end of a stick that was soaked in a bucket of brine. The rich used wool and rosewater.

In the Middle Ages people used moss instead of toilet paper and the rich ones preferred sheep wool. 

The first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back 589 AD, in early medieval China, when the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes."

The picture below shows anal cleansing instruments known as chūgi from the Nara period (710 to 784) in Japan. The modern rolls in the background are for size comparison.

By Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons, 

It was recorded in 1393 that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies produced an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) for the general use of the Chinese emperor and his imperial court at the capital of Nanjing. 

For the English working classes, newspapers were sometimes a source of toilet paper. In the 18th century Old Farmer's Almanac was sold with a hole in the corner to be hung in the privy.

Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented the first factory-produced toilet paper in 1857 and he proudly had his name watermarked on each sheet. Advertising it - very personalized - as "Gayetty's Medicated Paper," he recommended it as "a pure article for the toilet and a prevention for piles!" It is said that the early specimens were made of pearl-colored manila hemp paper. 

Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packs of 500 pieces at 50 cents a pack. It was not successful as people thought it wasteful to use perfectly good paper on such things. 

An advertisement for Gayetty's Medicated Paper

The Victorians referred to toilet paper as "curl papers". The product's present-day description as toilet paper goes back only to the 1880s.

An English businessman Walter Alcock had the bright idea of putting toilet paper on rolls. In 1879, he came up with the perforated toilet roll instead of the common flat sheets.

The British Perforated Paper Company began selling toilet paper in 1880. This paper did not come in roll form, it came in boxes of small pre-cut squares.

Before bath tissue was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.

A 1891 patent for toilet paper features an illustration that would imply the correct way the roll should be placed would be so the paper hangs over, and not under.

Toilet-paper in roll form became common in America by 1907. 

By the 1930s, production techniques of toilet paper had improved. In 1935 Northern Tissue advertised its toilet paper as "splinter-free".

The word 'bumph' in relation to piles of paperwork originates from World War II slang for toilet paper.

The first toilet paper factory in the USSR was built in 1969, 8 years after they went to space.

In 1973, Johnny Carson created a fake joke on national TV about a nationwide toilet paper shortage, unintentionally causing a real shortage of toilet paper across the USA. 

Colored toilet paper used to be popular in the U.S. until the 80s. It was colored to better match different bathroom decors. Colored toilet paper is still widely used in France today. 

FUN TOILET PAPER FACTS

There is an average of 333 squares of toilet paper in each roll.

Toilet Paper demand results in 27,000 trees being cut down every day.

In 2012, British supermarket Sainsbury's discovered that reducing the size of a toilet paper tube from 123mm to 112mm would allow more rolls in each truck, taking 500 trucks off the road and reducing carbon emissions by 140 tonnes.

The 2016 Oscars goody bag, given to nominees, contained a £194 luxury toilet paper set. Made by Joseph's Toiletries of Switzerland, it had ‘cloud-like' tissue paper wipes, which apparently took 60 experts five years to create.

Source Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999.

Sponge

A sponge is a very simple aquatic animal with many cells, but no mouth, muscles, heart or brain.

A sponge has a hollow body, its cavity lined by cells bearing flaggae, whose hip-like movements keep water circulating, bringing a stream of food particles.

Stove-pipe Sponge-pink variation. By Nhobgood (talk) Nick Hobgood 

All sponges are sessile aquatic animals. The sponge cannot move from place to place the way most other animals can, but grows in one spot like most plants do.

There are more than 8000 species of sea sponges living in aquatic habitats. Although there are freshwater species, the great majority of sponges are marine (salt water) species, ranging from tidal zones to depths exceeding 8,800 m (5.5 mi).

The Ancient Greeks used sea sponges to pad their helmets and leg armor.

The Ancient Romans used sponges for bathing and as paintbrushes, mops, and drinking glasses.

In Rome instead of toilet paper, all public toilets had a sponge on the end of a stick that was soaked in a bucket of brine.

Natural sponges

During Jesus Christ's crucifixion, a Roman soldier offered Him a sponge soaked in vinegar wine on the tip of his spear to drink, as an act of mockery.

A species of sponge, called the red sponge, can be pushed through a piece of fabric so that it is broken into thousands of tiny pieces. The animal does not die. Rather, all the pieces reassemble until the sponge is back to its original, whole self and continues with its life.

The yellow sponge Aplysina aerophoba turns blue when exposed to air. This leads to its specific name "aerophoba" (Greek: "fear of air").

Most sponges feed on bacteria and other microorganisms. A few of them are carnivores and eat tiny crustaceans.

Sea sponge aquaculture is the process of farming sea sponges under controlled conditions.

Greece is the world's leading producer of sea sponges, especially in the sea off Kalymnos island.

Display of natural sponges for sale on Kalymnos in Greece. Photo by Tom Oates

Bath sponges are the most common use of aquacultured sea sponge today. Bath sponges can be defined as any sponge species possessing only spongin fibers – which are springy fibres made from collagen protein.

Synthetic sponges where made possible to be manufactured only after the invention of polyester in 1941 and the commercial production of polyurethane foam in 1952. Synthetic "sponges" include personal and household cleaning tools; breast implants; contraceptive sponges.

The luffa "sponge" is not derived from an animal but from luffa plants; a species of gourd with edible fruits. Once dried and peeled they reveal a matrix of tough fibrous tissues inside that act as wonderful natural sponges.

Source Isaac Asimov's Book Of Facts

Soap

Soap is a chemical compound used in washing. It is a mixture of the sodium salts of various fatty acids.

Soap

Soap-like material found in clay cylinders during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800 BC. Inscriptions on the cylinders say that soap was being made by boiling fats with ashes, but do not refer to the purpose of the "soap."

Records show that the ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 BC, describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing.

It is recorded that soap was known to the Phoenicians around 600 BC. These early references to soap and soap making were for the use of the cleaning of textile fibers such as wool and cotton in preparation for weaving into cloth.

Soap was brought by Phoenician seafarers to Southern France. By the 6th century BC its had spread to central Europe. This soap was made with goat's fat and wood ashes.

The Bible, at least in its Authorised Version, mentions soap. But the prophet Jeremiah refers to it only as a cleansing agency for clothes. The passage speaks of washing-soda and potash. True soap was unknown to ancient Palestine. However the Jews did use a soap-like product of tree bark ashes as a cleansing agent when they needed to purify themselves.

The early Greeks bathed for aesthetic reasons and apparently did not use soap. Clothes were washed without soap in streams.

The ancient Germans and Gauls are credited with discovering a substance called soap, made of tallow and ashes. They used it not for washing but as a pomade to give an extra shine to the hair and to tint it red.

According to the Romans, soap got its name from Mount Sapo, where animals were sacrificed. There. the rain washed a mixture of melted animal fat, or tallow, and wood ashes down into the clay soil along the Tiber River. Women found that this clay mixture made their wash far cleaner with much less exertion required.

The first mention of real soap occurs in the writings of Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 25 August 79 AD). He referred to it explicitly as an invention of the barbarian Gauls. They made it from goat's tallow and beech ashes, which were the ancient equivalent of modern palm oil and caustic.

It was only in the 4th century BC that the Romans started using soap in the bath. Indeed, a physician in 385 AD recommended it as good for shampooing.

The English began making soap during the 12th century. Wealthy ladies of the Tudor period (1485-1603) used an expensive scented toilet soap made with olive oil for their daily washing.

Marseille soap or Savon de Marseille is a traditional hard soap made from vegetable oils that has been produced around Marseille, France, since about 1370. The soap is made by mixing sea water from the Mediterranean Sea, olive oil, and the alkaline chemicals soda ash (sodium carbonate) and lye (sodium hydroxide).

Marseille soap Wikipedia

Commercial soapmaking in the American colonies began in 1608 with the arrival of several soapmakers on the second ship from England to reach Jamestown, Virginia.

The transformation of soapmaking from a handicraft to an industry was abetted by the discovery of French chemist Nicolas LeBlanc (December 6, 1742 –January 16, 1806) in about 1790 of a process for manufacturing soda ash from brine (a form of salt). Soda ash is the alkali obtained from ashes that combines with fat to form soap. The Leblanc process produced quantities of cheap but good quality soda ash.

LeBlanc devised his method of producing soda ash to win a prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences, but the Revolutionary government merely granted him a patent.

Modern soapmaking was born in 1811 with the discovery by Michel Eugene Chevreul, another French chemist, of the chemical nature and relationship of fats, glycerine and fatty acids. His studies established the basis for both fat and soap chemistry.

Soap in colonial America soap had been sold door to door. By the late 1830s it was being distributed in general stores, where it was sold from huge blocks. Store customers showed how much they would like and the shopkeeper chopped of the required amount and wrapped it for taking home.

In Britain for centuries, washing with soap was something only the wealthy could afford, in part because since 1712 soap had been taxed to raise revenue. Because of public pressure, in 1853, the Chancellor of Exchequer William Gladstone abolished this tax on cleanliness.

William Shepphard of New York patented liquid soap on August 22, 1865. The product was made by dissolving one pound of solid soap in water, and then adding 100 pounds of spirits of ammonia or hartshorn until the liquid thickened to the consistency of molasses.

Ivory Soap was originally named P&G White Soap. In 1879, Harley Proctor found the new name during a reading in church of the 45th Psalm of the Bible: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

By Procter and Gamble Heritage Center 

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

In 1898, B.J. Johnson developed a soap derived from palm and olive oils; his company, the B.J. Johnson Soap Company, introduced "Palmolive" brand soap that same year. It was so successful that that the B.J. Johnson Soap Co. changed their name to Palmolive in 1917.

Wikipedia

Redd Foxx, the renowned comedian, dodged the draft during World War II by eating half a bar of soap before his physical. This unconventional and unwise tactic caused him to experience heart palpitations, which led to a rejection from the military.

In 1999, US soap maker Casey Makela published a recipe for making soap out of human breast milk.

Millenials are responsible for the decline in the bar soap industry. They prefer liquid soap because bar soap is deemed "dirty" and for old people.

Global Handwashing Day occurs on October 15 each year. The global campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key factor in disease prevention. Respiratory and intestinal diseases can be reduced by 25-50%.

Global Handwashing Day was initiated by the Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP) in August 2008 at the annual World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden with the first Global Handwashing Day took place on October 15, 2008. The date was appointed by the UN General Assembly. 

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are more effective at battling some bacteria, like those causing staph infections. However, other bacteria are becoming more tolerant of such sanitizers, and regular hand washing with simple soap and water is the best solution for them. “It's the physical action of lifting and moving them off your skin, and letting them run down the drain.” said Lance Price, a professor at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health to NPR,

Microbeads, the little abrasive beads in found in soap products, are so dangerous to the environment they've been banned in the US.

Sources Comptons Encyclopedia, Europress Enyclopedia, Daily Express

Shower

Showers originated when ancient people discovered that washing under a waterfall was far more effective than simply bathing in standing water.

The ancient Greeks were the first people to make their own form of shower, which sprayed bathers with water. Their aqueducts and sewage systems made of lead pipes allowed water to be pumped both into and out of large communal shower rooms used by the wealthy and common citizens alike.

What we think of as the shower today was invented in 1767 by William Feetham, a stove maker from Ludgate Hill in London. His shower contraption used a pump to force the water into a vessel above the user's head and a chain would then be pulled to release the water from the vessel.

The shower didn’t come into common usage until the late twentieth century as people realized showering is a far quicker and more hygienic way of washing than having a bath.

By Alexander.stohr at the German language Wikipedia

In the mid 20th century Alcatraz was the only federal prison to offer hot-water showers for its inmates because the prison staff felt the inmates would find the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay almost impossible to withstand during an escape attempt.

Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo movie.

While making Shrek, some members of the movie's development team took mud showers to study the movement of mud.

In Papau New Guinea, one 8.5-minute shower costs $3.38, about 70% of an average resident’s daily income.

The reason people feel compelled sing in the shower is partly because the reverb of the shower boosts the voice, adds more bass, and sounds more powerful, thus boosting the singer's confidence to sing.

The brain enters an "incubation period" when we are in a relaxed state which allows our subconscious mind to bring things to our attention, according to scientists. That's why when we take showers, we experience greater problem-solving ability and creativity. 

Scientists are still debating why shower curtains get blown inward when the shower is running

A shower uses less water on average than a bath: 80 liters for a shower compared with 150 liters for a bath.

Pixabay

Humans only need to shower every two to three days — a daily shower can cause irritated and cracked skin.

Cold showers have better effects on men's hair and complexion - Hot showers may overheat a man's organs and lower their sperm count.

Procter & Gamble

Proctor & Gamble was founded on October 31, 1837 by brothers in law candlemaker William Procter and soapmaker James Gamble in Cincinnati. It was Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, who persuaded his sons-in-law to become business partners. 

By the end of the 1850s, sales had reached $1 million per annum. By that point, about 80 employees worked for Procter & Gamble.

During the American Civil War, the family firm won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products.

Introduced in 1879, Ivory Soap became Proctor & Gamble's most famous product with the advertising slogans, "It floats" and "99 44/100 per cent pure." It was William Proctor's son Harley Procter, who is credited with devising the marketing campaigns that would make Ivory Soap the leader in its field.

1898 advertising poster

Ivory Soap was originally named P&G White Soap. In 1879, Harley Proctor found the new name during a reading in church of the 45th Psalm of the Bible: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

In 1890 the firm Procter & Gamble was incorporated with William C Proctor, another son of William Proctor. as general manager and the company boomed.

As radio became more popular in the 1920s and 1930s, Proctor and Gamble sponsored a number of radio programs. In 1932, they began to produce and sponsor the first radio serial dramas. As the company was known for detergents, the serials became commonly known as "soap operas."

After 20 years of research, Procter & Gamble introduced in 1946 Tide, a detergent with a complex chemical compound that actually pulled oil and grease out of clothes and dissolved dirt into the wash water. The company soon became the biggest advertiser and the biggest detergent producer in America.

With the rise of television in the 1950s and 1960s, most of the new serials were sponsored and produced by Proctor & Gamble. They included the first successful daytime drama on television, Search for Tomorrow, which debuted in 1951 and The Guiding Light, which had begun in 1937 as a radio serial, and made the jump to television in 1952.

In 1969 Proctor and Gamble decided to take the technology for producing soap and apply it to potato chips. The result was Pringles potato chips.

Proctor & Gamble exited the food and drink business in 2012 when it sold its Pringles brand to Kellogg's for $2.75 billion. The company had previously sold Jif peanut butter, Crisco shortening and oils, and Folgers coffee in separate transactions to Smucker's.

Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999