SOAP MANUFACTURE. The principal kinds of soap manufactured in England are white or curd soap, made chiefly from tallow and soda, but for some particular purposes olive-oil and soda ; yellow soap, composed of tallow, resin, and soda, to which some palm oil is occasionally added; and mottled soap, made from tallow, kitchen stuff, and soda ; the mottled appearance is given to this soap by dispersing the lees through it towards the end of the operation. There is also a brown soap, made from palm oil and resin. Soft soap is generally prepared from fish-oil and potash.
The harder or soda soaps are prepared by boiling the fatty matter with an aqueous solution of caustic soda ; when combination has taken place, or in other words, when the soap is formed, a quantity of common salt is added, which, dissolving in the lees, increases their density, and the soap then floats on the surface of the liquid. The fire being then extinguished, the semifluid soap, after a proper interval, but while yet hot, is removed from the lees and put into frames of wood or iron, where it remains until it has become cold and hard, when it is cut into bars for sale. In making soft soap no lees are separated, the whole of the solution of potash, which is made strong on that account, being combined with the oily matter used.
The soaps which have the alkalies for their bases are soluble in water, though the solu tion is in general milky ; they are also soluble in alcohol, and the solution is used frequently as a test of what is called the hardness ofwater ; acids also decompose soaps.
Fancy soaps or scented soaps are made in great variety, and have generally French names attached to them ; for the French are the leading manufacturers of such articles. Among soft toilet soaps are Naples soap, savon nacre, and crème d'amandes. Among hard toilet soaps are Windsor soap, Savors is la rose, Say= an bouquet, cinnamon soap, orange-flower soap, musk soap, bitter almond soap, and many others.
Most of these are scented by the substances which give them their characteristic names.
The soap manufacture is one of considerable importance. The principal seats in England are Liverpool and Runcorn, London, Brent ford, Bristol, and Hull; there are also soap-. works of considerable extent at Bromsgrove, Newcastle, Gateshead, Warrington, and Plymouth. In Scotland two-thirds of the total quantity of soap are made at Glasgow and Leith. In Ireland soap is chiefly made at Belfast, Londonderry, Limerick, and Cork.
In 1711 an excise duty of ld. per lb. was first imposed on all soap made in Great Britain, which was raised in 1713 to lid. per lb. In 1782 the duty was again increased, and a distinction was for the first time made between hard and soft soap, the duty on the former being 21d., and on the latter lid, per lb. In 1816 another increase of duty took place, and hard soap was subjected to a duty of 3d. per lb. In 1833 the duty was reduced to lid. per lb. on hard soap, and id. per lb. on soft. The present duty is lid. per lb. and 5 per cent. on hard soap ; ld. per lb. and 5 per cent. on soft soap. Notwithstanding the strenuous exertions made for its removal, the soap duty still remains a blot on the excise relations of this country.
The quantity of soap charged with excise duty during the last three years has been as follows: 1848 . 189,669,263 lbs.
1849 197,632,281 „ 1850 . 204,410,826 „ The quantity exported to foreign countries during the same three years amounted to 1848 10,462,069 lbs.
1849 10,728,342 „ 1850 .. 12,555,493 „