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.