Who Invented Soap? The Babylonians were the one ones who invented soap at 2800 B.C. They discovered that combining fats, namely animal fats, with wood ash produced a substance capable of easier cleaning. The first soap was used to wash wool used in textile industry.
Ancient Mesopotamians were first to produce a kind of soap by cooking fatty acids – like the fat rendered from a slaughtered cow, sheep or goat – together with water and an alkaline like lye, a caustic substance derived from wood ashes. The result was a greasy and smelly goop that lifted away dirt.
Evidence has been found that ancient Babylonians understood soap making as early as 2800 BC Archeologists have found soap-like material in historic clay cylinders from this time. These cylinders were inscribed with what we understand as saying, “fats boiled with ashes” (a method of making soap).
Before soap, many people around the world used plain ol' water, with sand and mud as occasional exfoliants. Depending on where you lived and your financial status, you may have had access to different scented waters or oils that would be applied to your body and then wiped off to remove dirt and cover smell.
In the late 15th century, Queen Isabella of Spain bragged that she had only bathed twice in her whole life.
In the 19th century, body care became something people thought distinguished them from the lower classes. By the middle of the century, periodic bathing had become common. Advancements in industry, plumbing, architecture and science helped spread the practice of bathing and hand-washing.
Legend says that soap was first discovered on Sappo Hill in Rome when a group of Roman women were washing their clothes in the River Tiber at the base of a hill, below which animal fats from the sacrifices ran down into the river and created soapy clay mixture.
Not even the Greeks and Romans, who pioneered running water and public baths, used soap to clean their bodies. Instead, men and women immersed themselves in water baths and then smeared their bodies with scented olive oils. They used a metal or reed scraper called a strigil to remove any remaining oil or grime.
At the most basic level, soap is a special type of salt derived from vegetable or animal fats or oils—for example, tallow (rendered beef fat), coconut oil, and olive oil are all popular soap bases. The oil or fat is combined with an alkaline metal solution, which breaks it down into the salt.
Nini was born 4,500 years ago in what is now southern Iraq, perhaps in the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, where the oldest written tablet detailing the manufacture of soap originates.
The acronym SOAP stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan.
These barrels dated well before 2800 B.C demonstrate evidence of the civilization using an ancient soap making method. There are also Biblical accounts of the Israelites making soap gel from ash lye and vegetable oils showing that the importance of personal hygiene was realised.
You don't need to use conventional soaps in your daily hygiene routine. All you absolutely need, bare bones, to stay clean is water. Just water. Water does a fine job of rinsing away dirt without stripping vital oils from your skin.
By contrast, Pliny the Elder, whose writings chronicle life in the First Century AD, describes soap as 'an invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish tint to the hair'. He even gives recipes for making soap, indicating that it was used 'to disperse scrofulous sores'.
The Romans used to buy bottles of Portuguese urine and use that as a rinse. GROSS! Importing bottled urine became so popular that the emperor Nero taxed the trade. The ammonia in urine was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and urine remained a popular mouthwash ingredient until the 18th century.
The main purpose of the baths was a way for the Romans to get clean. Most Romans living in the city tried to get to the baths every day to clean up. They would get clean by putting oil on their skin and then scraping it off with a metal scraper called a strigil. The baths were also a place for socializing.
Recipes for soap-making are described by Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (c. 865–925), who also gave a recipe for producing glycerine from olive oil. In the Middle East, soap was produced from the interaction of fatty oils and fats with alkali.
In Europe, the medieval Spain was a leading soap producer by the 800. Soap making began in England in the 1200. Soap was produced from animal fat and had a very strong unpleasant smell hence they started importing soap from the middle east. Finer soaps made from vegetable oils were later produced in Europe.
Although some individual Viking and Celtic tribes discovered soap independently, it was not widely known in Europe until the Arab invasion of the Byzantine Empire. It took considerably longer for the invention to reach northern Europe; the Celts are credited with introducing soap to Britain in 1000 CE.
Fast forward to 1767, when the first patent for a shower was granted to William Feetham, a stove maker from Ludgate Hill in London. These early modern-day showers were powered by a hand pump and used less water than baths.
Ancient Greece (100 B.C.)
“The person being showered would stand on one side, and a servant would pour water through the hole.” Eventually, public showers, complete with lead plumbing and intricately carved showerheads, became commonplace, especially in gymnasiums.
They're a softer lining that protects some of the most delicate places. If they had a metal tub, the sheets can be used for one of two reasons. They either offer a lining to prevent the heat of the metal burning or they prevent the coldness of the metal being uncomfortable.
Britain's first TV soap opera was The Grove Family (BBC) which began on 9 April 1954. The family was named after the BBC's Lime Grove Studio where the production was made.