PREFACE.
IT may appear something strange, that notwithstanding the numerous volumes hitherto published upon the different Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures, no practical account of Soap-making have as yet reached the eye of the Public. What this may be owing to, seem rather difficult to account for: it may be, that those few possessed of the secret, from a parsimonious, contracted, or selfish disposition, consider themselves justly entitled to preserve, exclusively, that which have cost them, perhaps, much time, expence, and trouble, to acquire. Another, and more favourable reason, however, may be alleged; that amongst these few, none have been urged by that degree of confidence in their own abilities, sufficient to induce them to set about a work in itself so mysterious and uncommon. Be that as it may, the author of the following pages could seriously have wished that this task had fortunately fallen to the lot of some other person much better qualified than himself. The idea, however, of retaining from our fellow-creatures that knowledge which the Great Disposer of all good have been pleased to lend us, only, is a notion so contrary to the benevolent rules of Christianity, which is, To do good and to communicate, that the author feels himself peculiarly happy in having it in his power to obey so far the sacred injunctions, as with pleasure to communicate to others what they may stand in need of, or to the extent of his abilities bestow.
To obtain the knowledge necessary to complete a Soap-maker, must at all times be attended with a very considerable expence, besides the consumption of a large portion of time. No experienced Soap-boiler would consider it at all worth his attention, to undertake the instructing, in the fundamental principles of the art, any person under a premium of One Hundred Guineas, besides the benefit of the person's labour spent in the acquirement. Common apprentices to soap-makers, acquire their knowledge from ocular demonstration only: they see how to prepare the materials, mix them together, set a cave, draw off and collect the leys therefrom, boil the same with tallow in the soap-pan:—the event ultimately is the production of soap.
They may also be instructed, under the eye of their master, or the boiler, occasionally, to finish a soap-pan. This last indulgence naturally creates in the apprentice, perhaps nearly out of his time, an impressive idea of his own finishing, or completion in the art of his trade. How wonderfully mistaken, however, many such have found themselves, when afterwards entrusted with the sole charge and management of a soap-work, I shall leave to their own ingenuous bosoms to declare. I well know from experience what I have just advanced to be a positive fact.
The following Treatise, therefore, I consider as a handsome and valuable present to Soap-makers in general.—Any person possessing the means, and having an inclination to become Soap-maker, may, with this book before him, proceed immediately to work, without danger of going wrong, provided always the rules and directions therein inculcated be most scrupulously attended to.
I have commenced, in order, at the very first principles of the profession, as supposing the reader totally ignorant of soap and its combinations, by giving a short account of the principal alkaline materials most universally made use of in the manufacturing of soap, and how they are to be treated, in order to extract therefrom the leys, or alkaline salts.
Secondly, I have pointed out how the hard materials may be analysed, or examined, in order to detect sand in their composition.
I next proceed to consider the leys, and to shew how they are to be weighed, and proved with regard to their strength, mildness, and causticity; consequently, to determine whether they are, or are not, fit for making soap.
After which I come, in course, to charge the pan, preparatory to a making of Yellow Hard Soap, the operation of which is gone through in the most minute manner, explaining, as I proceed, every thing that may appear any ways dark to the understanding of a young beginner.
An operation of White Hard Soap, with the same peculiar minuteness, is also proceeded in, and described, with the grand secret of finishing for Pure White Soap, and how to scent or perfume the same.
It is also shown, how the perfume may be at an easy rate procured; with the method of preparing the Test for discovering the existence of an alkali in any liquid body.
After the conclusion of the observations on hard Soap, is inserted Two Experiments accurately made on White Soap, upon a small scale, with a Calculation of the Expence, Profit, &c. attending the same; and a Table, shewing at one view the neat Amount of Duties to be paid to the Excise on any number of inches in the frame, from one to one hundred, and by which any other quantity, or number of inches, may be discovered.
For the benefit of those who may not be acquainted with casting up the same, a specimen of the work is also subjoined.
I then enter upon the operation of Soft Soap, exhibiting and explaining several makings as they actually took place, with descriptions of leys, &c. By way of Appendix, and what is most essentially necessary for every Soapmaker to be intimately acquainted with, I have selected Abstracts of the principal Laws of Excise, peculiar to Hard and Soft Soap-makers:—The whole comprising a complete System of Soap-making, comprehending everything needful in the trade for the Soap-boiler to be informed of.
The Author has only further to observe, that in prosecuting his business as a Soap-maker, he was uniformly in the practice, from an early period, of taking down notes in writing of every particular, or uncommon circumstance, that appeared to him material, in the course of his operations.
These remarks, for his further satisfaction, he from time to time submitted to trial, by various experiments upon a small scale: And by thus persevering, he flatters himself to have acquired a tolerable knowledge of the different phenomena so universally attendant on, and inseparably connected with, the process of Soap-making; thereby rendering the whole at once clear, plain, and comprehensive.
In reviewing of late his jottings, he was forcibly impressed with this idea, viz. that these remarks and observations, being the result of above five-and-twenty years practical experience, might be of advantage, if made public, to the generality of his Brethren in Trade, especially those who have not had an opportunity of being properly instructed in the fundamental principles of Soap-making.
These principles the Author considers to be a thorough knowledge of the nature and qualities of the original materials, leys, &c. used in the manufactory. It may in general be observed, that all bodies possessing a fixed alkaline salt, may be rendered useful in the making of Soap; but the chief, and what is commonly resorted to, are the following, viz. Kelp, Barilla, American and St Peterburg, Pot and Pearl Ashes, Dantzic, English, &c.; with a short Account of which, from the best authorities, we shall commence this Treatise, and conclude the whole with a brief Dissertation on Spoiled Hard Soap, &c.