The Handbook of Soap Manufacture Part 10

When fats are mixed together, however, their varying alkali requirements become modified, and once the saponification is begun with weak lye, other materials are induced to take up alkali of a strength with which alone they would not combine.

It is considered the best procedure to commence the pasting or saponification with weak lye.

In order to economise tank s.p.a.ce, it is the general practice to store strong caustic lye (60 to 70 Tw., 33 to 37 B.) and to dilute it as it is being added to the soap-pan by the simultaneous addition of water.

Many manufacturers give all their soap a "brine wash" to remove the last traces of glycerine and free the soap from carbonates. This operation takes place prior to "fitting"; sufficient water is added to the boiling soap to "close" it and then brine is run in to "grain" it.

After resting, the liquor is withdrawn.

Having described the necessary operations in general, we will now consider their application to the preparation of various kinds of hard soap.

_Curd Soaps._--Tallow is largely used in the manufacture of white curd soaps, but cocoa-nut oil sometimes enters into their composition.

The first three operations above described, _viz._, pasting, graining out, and boiling on strength, are proceeded with; the clear boiling by means of a closed steam coil is continued until the "head" is boiled out and the soap is free from froth. A sample taken and cooled should be hard. Boiling is then stopped, and, after covering, the pan is allowed to rest for eight to ten hours, when the soap is ready for filling into frames, where it is crutched until perfectly smooth.

_Curd mottled_ is usually made from melted kitchen stuff and bone grease.

Its preparation is substantially the same as for curd soap, but the clear boiling is not carried so far. The art of curd mottled soap-making lies in the boiling. If boiled too long the mottling will not form properly, and, on the other hand, insufficient boiling will cause the soap to contain an excess of entangled lye. Having boiled it to its correct concentration the pan is allowed to rest about two hours, after which the soap is ready for framing, which should be done expeditiously and the frames covered up.

Some lye, containing the impurities from the fats used, remains in the interstices of the curd, unable to sink, and as the soap cools it is enclosed and forms the mottling. The mottling may, therefore, be considered as a crystallisation of the soap, in which the impurity forms the colour.

_Blue and Grey Mottled Soaps._--These are silicated or liquored soaps in which the natural mottling, due to the impure materials used in the early days of soap-making, is imitated by artificial mottling, and are, consequently, entirely different to curd mottled soaps.

The materials employed in making mottled soap comprise bleached palm oil, tallow, bone fat, cocoa-nut oil, palm-kernel oil, cotton-seed oil, and, in some instances, rosin.

The choice of a charge will naturally depend upon the cost; the property of absorbing a large amount of liquor, which is characteristic of soaps made from cocoa-nut oil and palm-kernel oil, is taken advantage of, as are also the physical properties of the various fats and oils, with a view to the crystallisation of the resultant soap and the development of the mottle. The fat is saponified, grained and boiled on strength, as previously described. After withdrawing the half-spent lye, the soap is just closed by boiling with water, and is then ready for the silicate or other saline additions.

Soap intended to be liquored with silicate of soda should be distinctly strong in free alkali; the crystalline nature of the soap is increased thereby, and the mottled effect intensified. Some makers, however, fit the soap coa.r.s.ely and allow a nigre to deposit; then, after removing the nigre, or transferring the settled soap to another copper, containing sc.r.a.ps of mottled soap, get the soap into a condition for mottling, and add the silicate of soda solution. To every 1 cwt. of soap, 28 lb. of silicate of soda solution, 32-1/2 Tw. (20 B.) is added, whilst boiling; the strength of the silicate solution, however, will depend upon the proportion of cocoa-nut oil and palm-kernel oil present in the charge. Many soap-makers use 20 Tw. (13 B.) (cold) silicate solution, whilst others prefer 140 Tw. (59.5 B.), with the gradual addition of water to the soap, kept boiling, until the product is in the correct mottling condition, and others, again, use bleach liquor, soda crystals, pearl ash, and salt, together with silicate solution.

Considerable skill and experience is necessary to discern when the soap acquires the correct mottling state. It should drop off the spatula in large thick flakes, take considerable time to set, and the surface should not be glossy.

When this mottling condition has been obtained, the colouring matter, which would be ultramarine for the blue mottled and manganese dioxide for the grey mottled soap (3-4 lb. ultramarine or 1-3 lb. manganese dioxide being sufficient for 1 ton of soap), is mixed with a little water and added to the boiling soap--the boiling is continued until all is thoroughly amalgamated, and when the steam is shut off the contents of the pan are ready for cleansing.

Mottled soap is run into wooden frames, which, when full, are covered over and allowed to cool very gradually. On cooling slowly, large crystals are produced which result in a distinct bold mottle; if the cooling is too rapid, a small crystal is obtained and the mottle is not distributed, resulting in either a small mottle, or no mottle at all, and merely a general coloration. In fact, the entire art of mottling soap consists in properly balancing the saline solutions and colouring matter, so that the latter is properly distributed throughout the soap, and does not either separate in coloured ma.s.ses at the bottom of the frame, or uniformly colour the whole ma.s.s.

A sample of the soap should test 45 per cent. fatty acids, and the amount of salt would range from 1/2 to 1 per cent.

Some of the English mottled soaps, especially those made from materials which give a yellow-coloured ground, are bleached by soaking in brine, or pickling in brine containing 2 per cent. of bleach liquor. The resultant soap has a white ground and is firm. The bleach liquor may be made by mixing 1 cwt. bleaching powder with 10 cwts. of soda ash solution (15 Tw., 10 B.), allowing to settle, and using the clear liquid, or by mixing 2 parts soda ash solution with 1 part of bleaching powder solution, both solutions being 30 Tw. (18.8 B.).

_Milling-base._--The materials generally used are tallows and cocoa-nut oils of the finest quality. The tallow is thoroughly saponified first, and the graining is performed by the aid of caustic soda lye in preference to salt. The half-spent lyes are withdrawn, and the cocoa-nut oil added to the pan. This is saponified, and when the saponification is complete, "boiling-on-strength" is proceeded with. Special care should be devoted to the "boiling-on-strength" operation--its value in good soap-making cannot be over-rated--and perfect saponification must be ensured. The half-spent lyes are allowed to deposit during the night, and the soap must be carefully examined next morning to ascertain if any alkali has been absorbed. If the caustic taste is permanent the strengthening operation is complete, but should any caustic have been absorbed, further addition of alkali must be made and the boiling continued. These remarks apply equally to all soaps.

The soap, when ready, is fitted.

Bleached palm oil, olive oil, castor oil and lard are also employed in the production of special milling soap bases, a palm oil soap being specially suitable for the production of a violet-scented toilet soap.

_Yellow Household Soaps._ (_a_) _Bar Soaps._--These are made from tallow with an admixture of from 15-25 per cent. rosin. The best quality is known in the South and West of England as Primrose Soap, but is designated in the North of England by such names as Golden Pale, Imperial Pale, Gold Medal Pale, etc. Tallow alone produces a very hard soap of inferior lathering qualities; but rosin combines with alkali to form a soft body, which, although not a soap in the strict sense of the term, is readily soluble in water, and in admixture with the durable tallow soap renders it more soluble in water and thereby increases its lathering properties.

The rosin may be added to the soap-pan after a previous partial saponification with soda ash, and removal of colouring matter, and finally saponified with caustic soda lye, or, as is more generally adopted, as a rosin change. The pan is opened with caustic soda lye and saturation of the rosin takes place rapidly; when completely saponified it is grained with salt, and the coloured lye allowed to deposit and finally withdrawn.

The four operations already detailed apply to this soap.

Cheaper pale soaps may be made from lower grades of tallow and rosin and are generally silicated.

(_b_) _Tablet or Washer Type._--A demand has arisen for soap of free lathering qualities, which has become very popular for general household use. This soap is usually made from a mixture of cotton-seed oil, tallow, and cocoa-nut oil, with a varying amount of rosin. The tallow yields firmness and durability whilst the other const.i.tuents all a.s.sist in the more ready production of a copious lather.

As to what amount of rosin can be used to yield a finished soap of sufficient body and satisfactory colour, this naturally depends upon the grade of raw material at the soap-makers' disposal. Those fats and oils which yield firm soaps, will, of course, allow a greater proportion of rosin to be incorporated with them than materials producing soaps of less body. Rosin imparts softness to a soap, and also colour.

This is a fitted soap and full details of manufacture have already been given.

Cheaper soaps are produced from lower grade materials hardened with alkaline solutions.

_Resting of Pans and Settling of Soap._--The fitted soap is allowed to settle from four to six days. The period allowed for resting is influenced, however, not only by the size of the boil, and the season, but also by the composition of the soap, for if the base has been made from firm stock it is liable to cool quicker than a soap produced from soft-bodied materials.

On subsidence, the contents of the pan will have divided into the following:--

First. On top, a thin crust of soap, with perhaps a little light coloured fob, which is returned to the pan after the removal of the good soap.

Second. The good settled soap, testing 62-63 per cent. fatty acids. The subject of removing and treatment of this layer is fully dealt with in the next chapter.

Third. A layer of darker weak soap, termed "nigre," which on an average tests 33 per cent. fatty acids, and, according to the particular fit employed, will amount to from 15-20 per cent. of the total quant.i.ty of soap in the pan.

The quant.i.ty of nigre may vary not only with the amount of water added during finishing, but is also influenced by the amount of caustic alkali remaining in the soap paste prior to fitting. If the free caustic alkali-content is high, the soap will require a large amount of water to attain the desired fit. This water renders the caustic into a lye sufficiently weak to dissolve a quant.i.ty of soap, consequently, as the "nigre" is a weak solution of soap together with any excess of alkali (caustic or carbonate) and salt which gravitates during the settling, the quant.i.ty is increased.

Fourth. A solution containing alkaline salts, mostly carbonates and chlorides, with a little caustic.

The amount of the layer is very variable, and doubtless, under certain physical conditions, this liquor has separated from the nigre.

_Utilisation of Nigres._--The nigres are boiled and the liquor separated by graining with salt. Nigre may be utilised in various ways.

(1) It may be used several times with new materials. This particularly refers to soaps of the "Washer" type. The colour of the nigre will determine the number of times it can be employed.

(2) It may be incorporated with a soap of a lower grade than the one from which it was obtained. In this case a system is generally adopted; for example, soap of the best quality is made in a clean pan, the nigre remaining is worked up with fresh material for soap of the next quality, the nigre from that boil, in its turn, is admixed with a charge to produce a batch of third quality, and the deposited nigre from this is again used for a fourth quality soap--the nigre obtained from this latter boil would probably be transferred into the cheapened "washer" or perhaps if it was dark in colour into the brown soap-pan.

(3) The nigre may be fitted and produce a soap similar to the original soap from which it was deposited. It is advisable to saponify a little fat with it.

(4) Nigres from several boils of the same kind of soap can be collected, boiled, and fitted. The settled portion may be incorporated with a new charging to keep the resultant soap uniform in colour--unless this is done, the difference in colour between boils from new materials alone, and those containing nigre, is very noticeable. The nigre settled from this fitted nigre boil would be utilised in brown soap.

(5) According to its colour, and consistence, a nigre may be suitable for the production of disinfectant, or cold-water soaps.

(6) Nigre may be bleached by treatment with a 20 per cent. solution of stannous chloride--1 cwt. of this solution (previously heated) is sufficient to bleach 20 tons of nigre.

_Transparent Soaps._--The production of transparent soaps has recently been fully studied, from a theoretical point of view, by Richardson (_J. Amer. Chem. Soc._, 1908, pp. 414-20), who concludes that the function of substances inducing transparency, is to produce a jelly and r.e.t.a.r.d crystallisation.

The old-fashioned transparent soap is prepared by dissolving, previously dried, genuine yellow soap in alcohol, and allowing the insoluble saline impurities to be deposited and removed. The alcoholic soap solution is then placed in a distillation apparatus, or the pan containing the solution is attached by means of a still head to a condenser, and the alcohol distilled, condensed and regained. The remaining liquid soap, which may be coloured and perfumed, is run into frames and allowed to solidify.

The resultant ma.s.s is somewhat turbid, but after storage in a room at 95 F. (35 C.) for several months, becomes transparent.

The formation of the transparency is sometimes a.s.sisted and hastened by the addition of glycerine or a solution of cane-sugar.