CHAPTER XII
CONVERTING NITROGENOUS REFUSE INTO SOAP
A startling corollary of contemporary economic conditions is the spirited struggle which is now being waged between the table and the bath. The structural fabric of the human body demands a certain proportion of fat to ensure its smooth rhythmic working in precisely the same way as a machine requires oil. At the same time a cleanser is necessary wherewith to scour the external surface of the body to obtain protection against the ravages of disease. Fat is essential to fulfil this mission also. But there is an insufficient supply forthcoming to meet the complete claims of both. So the question arises—Which shall be satisfied? Little Mary or Mother Hygeia?
When Mégè Mouries, animated by the contention that it was preferable for the poor of Paris to be able to obtain a first-class nutritive butter substitute in preference to butter of doubtful quality, advanced his discovery of margarine as the solution to this problem, he little realized what a tremendous upheaval his invention was destined to achieve, or the staggering problem it would ultimately present to civilization. Certainly for many years his butter substitute, contrived from animal fat and milk, was regarded askance by the community in general. It was grudgingly conceded to be a possible food only for the poorest of the poor—those denied the opportunity from lack of means to purchase butter of any description.
For many years margarine was the object of unprincipled prejudice and obloquy. It struggled desperately for recognition. Inventive effort was expended freely to render the product more and more attractive in appearance and flavour, to attract all classes of the community. Indeed, ingenuity was carried to such lengths as to produce a substitute impossible of detection from the genuine article, except by the most searching analysis.
But the rejected of 1871 has become the indispensable of 1919. The prevailing shortage of dairying products, confined not to one single country or even continent, but common to the whole world, has compelled the recognition of the virtues of margarine. The alternative is to go without, inasmuch as other edible fats, which might have taken the place of butter, have become unobtainable. But the British public, which fought the advance and claims of margarine for nearly half a century with a blind fury, and being forced to accept Hobson’s choice, has encountered a pleasant surprise. The criticized butter substitute is found to be not so bad as it has been painted. With improving acquaintance opinion has veered round and now admits, somewhat tardily perhaps, that what was once considered to be only the poor man’s butter is, in reality, an excellent foodstuff in itself, and preferable to many grades of the genuine article, some of which certainly are not above suspicion. To convey some idea of the enormous hold which this article of food has now secured upon the public it may be related that the turnover of one firm, specializing in the preparation of this product, aggregated no less than £22,000,000—$110,000,000—during the year 1918.
The increasing popularity of margarine speedily exercised a pronounced reaction upon the soap-manufacturing industry. The fats which were being utilized for the production of detergents were now demanded for conversion into foodstuffs. Hitherto, the soap-boiler has been regarded as the very lowest depths to which fatty waste can possibly sink. Thereto gravitated all the flotsam and jetsam of greases arising from other industries and in every stage of decay. But it did not matter how rancid the substance might be by the time it reached the soap-manufacturer. Here a scarcely credible metamorphosis could be effected, the most repellent raw material being transformed into the most attractive and fragrant acquisition to the toilet. Little wonder therefore that fats condemned as unfit or considered superfluous, though perfectly sound, for other use by man or beast, found their way to this mill. The soap-maker could absorb it all.
Thus, it will be seen, the soap trade is founded upon the commercial utilization of waste, and this raw material is drawn from the three kingdoms—animal, vegetable, and fish. As a matter of fact, the source of the fat is immaterial. It can be compelled to play its allotted part in the evolution of the cleansing agent.
The British nation is a big consumer of soap. Supplies of animal fat could never keep pace with the demand for this commodity. So the vegetable kingdom was compelled to pay fat tribute to the soap-maker, the coco-nut, palm-kernel, and other exotic nut products furnishing the requisite oil expressed from the fleshy parts of their distinctive fruits. Then the harvests of the sea were found able to contribute impressive supplies of oils. These were likewise impressed into service.
While the soap-maker was busily engaged in his task another chemical wizard arose. He had discovered a means of hardening or solidifying fish oils, which naturally are fluid except at very low temperatures. This was a sensational discovery. Hydrogen was the agent which achieved the apparently impossible, but it did far more than merely to harden the oil. By harnessing the gas to this duty the peculiarly pungent aroma, and distinctive taste of the fish, is completely removed from the oil.
This scientific achievement brought a further levy of waste into industry. The refuse from whales which had hitherto been permitted to rot, the inedible portions of fish from the canneries, even glut catches of oil-yielding fish for which no profitable market could be found, were treated to secure the oleaginous product, which was subsequently hardened and then turned over to the margarine industry. The hydrogenated fish oil has been found to furnish an excellent butter substitute, and one so closely allied to the genuine article in every essential respect as to demand the evolution of new and more exacting methods to determine its actual origin. It offers the closest approach to butter by synthetic agency which has ever been accomplished up to this time.
The striking improvements recorded in the process and manufacture of margarine arrested the attention of the soap-maker. He reflected. Here he was receiving fats of every description to turn them into a product which only realized 4d.—8 cents—a pound. Yet he could take much of that self-same raw material, and by submitting it to another treatment he could produce an article which, as a foodstuff, was worth 1s.—25 cents—a pound. Why should he trouble to turn the fat into soap when he could derive three times the money by transforming it into an article of diet?
The war provided him with the opportunity for which he had been waiting patiently. The deficiency in butter supplies had to be remedied with margarine, which the public would have to accept willy-nilly. So the soap-maker switched over all the fresh sound fats from the soap-pans to the margarine mill. To-day thousands of tons of fats which five years ago would have been reduced to soap, this being considered as the only remaining utilization for the waste, is being turned into a food. The table has triumphed over the bath.
The devout worshippers at the feet of Hygeia may lament this inversion. But they need not despair. The world is not destined to go short of soap. Two British chemists, as a result of deep thinking, decided to attack the soap manufacturing issue de novo. They were not disposed to accept, at their face value, all that the textbooks set forth concerning the chemistry of soap. They were rather impressed by the fact that the manufacture of soap had undergone no fundamental change since the first cake was placed upon the market, which was during the days when Pepys was walking among us taking notes. So far as soap chemistry theories prevailed the two chemists in question were Bolshevic in their attitude towards them, which was a fortunate circumstance.
A cake of soap is as familiar as a loaf of bread. Yet how little do we know about it, despite the brain-power which has been crowded upon its preparation. As a cleansing agent it is without a rival. Many big industries would have to close their mills to-morrow were their supplies of soap cut off. Yet its composition is very simple. It is composed of only two basic ingredients—fat, from which the glycerine has been extracted, and caustic soda. No matter how much you may pay for the article, be it a penny or half-a-crown a tablet, analyse it, and you will find that there is the soda which achieves the cleansing effect, and the fat which gives the lather. It is quite possible a variety of other substances may be found associated with the two basic constituents, such as diatomaceous earth, Fuller’s earth, farina, traces of disinfectant, colouring matter, cereal grains, perfume, and even water. But beyond rendering the soap attractive to the eye, pleasant to the nose, or to a certain degree germicidal, these additional materials perform no useful purpose. They are described as fillers, but in more candid language may be set down, for the most part, as sheer adulterants. Few articles lend themselves so readily to adulteration as soap. Was it not an analyst who, in the courts, described a piece of soap submitted to him for investigation as a striking example of water standing upright!
Although we profess to know so much about soap and its properties, we are really labouring in ignorance. No chemist can tell you explicitly whether the cleansing action exercised is the result of chemical, physical, or mechanical action. It is one of those questions which the seeker after truth had better not press home too energetically, because the man of brains would probably retort firmly, but gently, that the interrogation involves such a complex reply as to be beyond your powers of comprehension.
In our resolve to respect Hygeia we are most liberal in our use of soap. We are even woefully extravagant, although the blame cannot be laid upon the shoulders of the user. The water is the criminal. Did it but rigidly adhere to the chemical formula of its composition, namely H₂O, all would be well, but unfortunately it is associated with certain salts which it picks up from the soil during its natural movement. Water appears to exercise a bewitching fancy for two salts in particular—lime and magnesia. It is the presence of these salts which renders our water hard. I might mention that there are other impurities in the water contributing to wastage of soap, but the two mentioned are the worst offenders in this respect.
Lime and magnesia have a remarkable affinity for fat, and until their amorous inclination is satiated the soap cannot possibly settle down to the duty for which it is employed. The moment the soap enters the water a chemical reaction occurs, the lime or magnesia, perhaps both, attracting the particles of fat until it is impossible for another molecule to be taken up. The extent of this attraction of the salts for the fat, and which the latter can no more resist than can iron filings battle against the drawing power of the magnet, may be gathered from the state of affairs prevailing in regard to the London water. The particles of lime contained in every 1,000 gallons of water attract approximately 15 pounds of fat contained in the soap before permitting the latter to lather. Seeing that fat enters into the composition of the average soap to the extent of approximately 60 per cent., it will be seen that about 25 per cent. of the fatty content of the soap is put out of action without performing any useful work.
The total loss of soap incurred during the year in London alone through this affinity runs into stupendous figures. The water consumption for washing purposes in the metropolis, according to Mr. Townsend, F.C.S., is 7,000,000 gallons a day. Consequently, at least 105,000 pounds of fat slip down the drains during the course of every twenty-four hours without fulfilling any useful service. The value of this loss, according to the same authority, may be set down at £1,000,000—$5,000,000—a year. This represents sheer waste, because the fats escape without extending a fraction of benefit to any one. It represents that section which has merely allied itself to the pernicious salts to form the lime-soap. From the foregoing one can form some estimate of the wastage of soap annually incurred throughout the country from the mere union of 25 per cent. of the fat with the lime—this figure fluctuates according to the degree of hardness of the water. Certainly it attains a figure which baffles credulity.
Confirmatory evidence of this waste is forthcoming from every hand-basin, bath, and washing appliance. It is revealed in the repulsive-looking greasy grey curds streaking the sides of the vessel, and which the user in ignorance generally dismisses as dirt removed by the soap. The housewife and launderer are often perplexed by the yellowish tone which certain garments assume, and the harsh and stickiness incidental to flannel after being washed. These defects are directly due to the lime-soap. Its presence is additionally exasperating owing to its extreme tenacity and penetrative powers, which wellnigh defy removal, except by the aid of powerful agents, the use of which is to be deplored, because they precipitate further and peculiar worries and adversely affect the fabrics. In the textile industries, more particularly the woollen trade, the lime-soap is regarded as the greatest affliction upon the craft.
The question arises as to whether the lime cannot be removed from the water, or whether science can evolve a soap capable of hurling defiance at the lime. The solution to the first-named suggestion is distillation of the water before use, a tedious and costly operation, or the subjection of the water to a softening process to effect the removal of the lime before the soap be introduced. Great strides have been recorded in this last-named field, but, unhappily, the question of cost constitutes an adverse factor. Thus the true solution would seem to lie in the preparation of a soap capable of resisting the blandishments of the lime.
It was this particular solution which the two British chemists, to whom I have alluded, set out to discover, but many years of patient labour in the laboratory was necessary to register the first success. This was due to the fact that they set out upon quite an original and unexplored line of research. They recognized that the margarine industry must develop into one of the biggest industries of the country, and that, accordingly, the tendency would be to abandon the conversion of fats into soap owing to the heavier claims of the table, and the more remunerative return which would arise from such an industrial diversion. They were also aware of the fact that in preparing the fats for the table a certain proportion of residue must result. At that time there appeared to be no profitable field for the utilization of this waste. So they decided to conduct their investigations along the path which would admit of this refuse being employed.
The fatty constituent decided, they cast around for another staple which was indispensable to the process they had definitely resolved to perfect. For this they required protein, the governing principle being the perfection of a cereal soap, the nitrogenous compounds of which should be turned to cleansing duty. Proteins were available in infinite variety, but here again it was realized that it would be wanton waste to use an article likely to be in request to serve as food for man or beast. Then they discovered that there were ample quantities of protein running to waste from commercial neglect. Accordingly, they decided to utilize these materials. The third constituent was the soda which must enter into the composition of any and every soap, but this did not occasion the slightest anxiety.
Equipped with these three materials they set to work. Experiment was tedious, and progress was slow, due to the fact that research was being conducted in quite a new and unknown field, absolutely deficient of any previous experience to serve as a guide. The first success recorded was the preparation of a soap in the form of a meal or powder coinciding with their ideas. This was submitted to the most rigorous tests, and the results obtained were quite in accordance with expectations. When this soap is introduced into the water no coagulation of the fat with the lime occurs. In this way the lime soap enemy was completely vanquished. As a supreme test sea-water was tried, with which it was found to lather as readily and as easily as when employed with distilled water.
The discovery represented a sensational achievement. It proved that something was awry with the existing theories pertaining to the chemistry of soap. Technical tests were undertaken, and they proved just as startling, because effects diametrically opposed to standard theories were observed. Whereas ordinary soap is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol, the cereal soap, so-called because of the starch which enters into its composition, is soluble in water, but absolutely insoluble in alcohol. The position is reversed.
A new era in soap manufacture was thus ushered in. The discovery came as a bomb-shell to the soap-making world, and, because it could not be explained through prevailing long-accepted chemical laws pertaining to this subject, it was ridiculed in certain quarters. To aggravate the situation chemists, who set out to fathom the secret of the new process by rigorous analysis, found themselves baffled. They could not determine the bases employed owing to the chemical reaction which had taken place during the preparation of the article, and from the circumstance that it belongs to colloidal chemistry. To indicate how completely the trade was baulked it may be mentioned that the chemist attached to one soap manufacturer in this country, and who had been requested to analyse a sample, contemptuously dismissed the product not as a soap, but as a filler!
Undaunted by the flood of adverse criticism which they provoked, the inventors requested the industries to which soap is essential, and which were being harassed by the lime-soap bugbear, to subject the discovery to a commercial test. They did so, and were so surprised at the results obtained as to ask promptly for further supplies! It not only offered them the means to reduce their consumption of soap, but it performed the desired functions more efficaciously, and proved to be a complete panacea for the many ills which had heretofore afflicted the trade. So impressed were they by what the new detergent accomplished that they established its use in their works there and then, and to this day have never reverted to the article formerly used.
In the powder form the application of the cereal soap was somewhat restricted. Accordingly the inventors decided to produce it in the familiar tablet and bar form, to enable a wider appeal to be made, even to the home. As events proved it was far easier to attain the meal stage than to pass therefrom to the solid cake. In fact, at one time it seemed as if this desired end would never be consummated. It was only by dint of unflagging effort that success was ultimately secured, and the soap in tablet and bar form introduced to the market.
As the manufacture of soap from waste vegetable bases represents something entirely new, so do the actual methods of production. The revolution is complete. In preparing the conventional soap from 10 to 16 days are necessary. By the new process the cereal soap can be made in sixty minutes! Furthermore, the operation is clean, absolutely free from odour, and cold, no heat whatever being required, except to warm the factory during the winter for the comfort of the employees. The machinery necessary is also of the simplest and most inexpensive character. Under these conditions there is not only a very marked saving in time, but of fuel and labour. In these high-pressure days wastage of time is as criminal as the wastage of material, and one logically asks why spend ten days in consummating a specific end when one hour will suffice for the purpose?
The saving in capital expenditure is very impressive, being at least 75 per cent. below that demanded for equipping the conventional factory. In other words, £10,000—$50,000—will provide an installation capable of turning out as much cereal soap as could be recorded with a plant costing £40,000—$200,000—devoted to the orthodox system.
The outstanding feature of the process is the complete absence of all boiling operations. The starch and protein-yielding material are passed through a mill to be reduced to a fine powder of the consistency of flour. This being a straightforward milling operation, the machinery ordinarily employed for grinding grain and other foods may be used. The flour is then emptied into a mixing machine, which is naught but the familiar dough-mixer used in the bakery. When the mixer is set in motion the caustic soda is admitted in a fine controlled stream. Directly the two materials come into contact the chemical reaction commences, the soda attacking the starch granules and breaking them down. Evidence of the battle in progress between the two chemicals is betrayed by the emission of the strong ammonia fumes, which prove that the nitrogenous compounds are being released. The admission of caustic soda is continued until the chemical reaction is concluded and the starch granules have been completely broken up. As the process is advanced the vegetable oil is admitted, the operation being so controlled as to yield a plastic mass of predetermined consistency. This is thoroughly kneaded after the manner of baker’s dough. The subsequent processes are common to those of the ordinary soap manufactory, the material being passed successively through the milling, plodding, and stamping machines.
The raw materials for the provision of the essential protein are drawn from the extensive vegetable kingdom. But in no instance is any material having a claim upon the community or the animal world as a possible food used for the purpose. Dependence is placed rather upon the waste incurred by the preparation of other products, or of materials which have been condemned as useless for food purposes.
As a case in point it may be mentioned that a grain-carrying ship was torpedoed, sunk, and, together with the cargo, subsequently salvaged. The retrieved grain was dried in the anticipation that it might be found suitable for cattle-feeding. But the expectations were doomed to disappointment. The wheat had been too completely impregnated with the salt from the sea. No other profitable use presenting itself, it was acquired for conversion into soap. It was ground in the usual manner and turned into the mixer. The presence of the salt, which had rendered the grain useless even as a cattle food, did not constitute an adverse factor. Had it not been for the cereal soap factory this cargo would have had to suffer destruction and have been completely lost to the community, whereas it was sold at a remunerative figure. Potato flour has likewise been utilized, but has not been widely exploited for the simple reason that this material constitutes an excellent foodstuff, either for man in the form of farina, or for cattle. Maize has also been used together with such products as rice, barley, oats, rye, and so on, but, except where the produce of this nature has suffered injury, it is not turned into soap. However, in those countries where a heavy surplus of such crops is encountered it would be found profitable to establish the cereal soap industry as a means of turning the glut to profitable advantage.
The principle governing the selection of the starch-yielding constituent is also observed in regard to the fat which is necessary. This is drawn exclusively from the margarine factories. It is a residue and at the moment possesses no other known marketable value. The ability to turn this refuse into an ingredient for soap has come as a distinct relief to the margarine industry, which threatened to be perplexed in the economical disposal of the accumulations. Seeing that the margarine manufacture is progressing by leaps and bounds, there is not likely to be any shortage in connection with the fat constituent of the cereal soap.
Supplies of a cheap and useless albeit rich starch waste product have also been secured in illimitable quantities. This has materially simplified the task of production. While a certain proportion of this particular raw material is secured for the preparation of an article of food, about 75 per cent. is discarded as waste. Since cattle will not eat it there remains no other field of utilization beyond the soap factory, for which it is eminently suited. In addition to the above-mentioned quantities ample supplies of this material are forthcoming, because it is freely used as ballast in ships sailing from the corner of the world in which the plant grows in profusion. Should the demand for the food product which this substance yields increase it would not exercise any stringency, because the offal alone would be adequate to satisfy soap-making requirements. In pre-war days this waste cost only 10s.—$2.50—per ton, but during the war, owing to freight inflation, the price rose to £10—$50—per ton, while little was carried in ballast, more profitable cargo being readily obtainable. Consequently imports declined, only sufficient being brought into the country to furnish the needs of the industry from which the foodstuff is made. But the vegetable world is wide, and so it is by no means a difficult problem to satisfy requirements for this new industry, even in regard to starch-yielding wastes. The only other essential ingredient is soda. As enormous quantities of this article are manufactured in this country supplies thereof are readily assured and at an attractive figure.
There is one feature concerning this conversion of vegetable wastes into soap which deserves mention. Should all familiar starch-yielding products become unobtainable, a remote contingency, or attain an excessive figure, manufacture need not be suspended. As a last extremity sawdust can be utilized as the protein base. The possibility of turning sawdust into soap constitutes something distinctly new and novel to the industry, but the apparently impossible is readily feasible under the process described. Normally such an expedient would not find favour, inasmuch as certain difficulty is experienced in the complete subjugation, or elimination, of the fibre which is exceedingly resistant to the breaking-up action resulting from milling and the chemical reaction. Nevertheless, the circumstance that sawdust can be used in this connection opens up vast possibilities, and represents an opportunity for inventive effort in the perfection of simple and completely effective means to overcome the fibre difficulty.
So far as industry is concerned the use of nitrogenous and oil wastes in the form of soap has enabled startling economies to be effected. In the woollen industry alone the saving in the soap-bill ranges from 20 per cent. upwards, as compared with other soaps which have been used, while the silk and cotton crafts can point to like economies. The successful subjugation of the lime-soap fiend is beneficially reflected in other directions. The effluents from the factories are conducted into the local drainage systems. The presence of the lime-soap in the drains provokes a host of troubles, such as clogging of the pipes and the fouling of traps and gullies, the curds proving exasperatingly tenacious and defying ready removal by ordinary flushing measures. Furthermore, the sludge reclaimed from the sewage, if contaminated by lime-soap, suffers material depreciation as a fertilizing agent because the grease, which is eventually released from the lime, tends to clog the soil.
But the most impressive fact to the ordinary user, both domestic and industrial, is the opportunity to reduce the wastage of soap. The fat content of the cereal soap is 50 per cent. less than that of the familiar article, and the whole of this is free to emulsify, from its refusal to coagulate with the lime in the water. Moreover, it contains two cleansing agents—the soda and the nitrogenous compounds—whereas the rival carries only one—the soda. Therefore it is not surprising to learn that in actual practice one pound of cereal soap will go as far, and do as much useful work, as two pounds of the ordinary soap. The ability to make a lather in sea-water is another distinct advantage which has been responsible for the widespread use of this commodity in the Royal Navy and mercantile marine.
Applied to London, the avoidance of soap-waste is certainly startling. It not only indicates how we can retrieve the £1,000,000—$5,000,000—at present escaping down the drains during the year, but the fat thus saved may be turned to more valuable account. The soap contributing to this gross loss is made from the very material possessing decided dietetic value. Therefore, by the law of economics, it should be diverted from its present use, admirable though it be to fulfil the claims of cleanliness, to the more vital application, especially in these days of stress and shortage. The table must take precedence over the bath.