What Is Fuller's Soap?

Fuller's soap is an ancient process that was used to clean woolen cloth before it was made into garments.

Significance

Fuller's soap has been used as a metaphor in the Bible for the purifying ability of the Lord. The New Testament's story of the transfiguration refers to Christ's white garments as whiter than any fuller could get them. Malachi 3:2 also states, "But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap."

Considerations

Fuller's field is an area west of Jerusalem where the Fullers practiced, and it was a geographical reference in the Old Testament. Wool was cleaned and bleached before it was made into clothes. It was also whetted and beaten into shape for the garment maker. A Hebrew translation of a fuller's business refers to the alkali used by those cleaning new cloth.

Old Testament references include nitre as a possible form of soap which was found and used in Syria.

Theories/Speculation

Before Homer's time and after, old urine and mud (called Fuller's earth) was used to clean wool. The famous saying "money doesn't have an odor" comes from the emperor Vespasian, whose son Titus complained about the urine tax on the local fullers. Vespasian responded by making his son take a whiff of a silver coin.

History

Sumerians knew how to make soap and even used scented oils in soap at least 2500 years before the time of Christ. Egyptian hieroglyphs exist with ancient peoples washing clothes. Homer also wrote about the washing of clothes in the sea in 600 BC.

The writer Pliny who lived in the first century AD referred to the Phonecian people making soap by boiling tallow and mixing it with the ashes of beech trees.

Romans may have used clay for washing called sapo, or they may have learned how to make soap from cultures which they conquered. Industrial or mass produced soap making may have existed as early as 80 AD in places like Pompeii, but despite public baths, soap was probably not that appealing and was used primarily to clean textiles.

In the second century, literature references soap used as a body wash, and shampoo has been referred to as early as the fourth century in Europe. Plants with saponins may have been used for soap in the Middle Ages. Saponins have been known to have bubbling properties for at least 5000 years. However, in the middle ages, these types of soaps were probably not widely used until the 10th and 11th centuries in certain cities in France and England.

Brimstone was burned in ancient times to create sulfuric acid, which bleached wool. Sulfuric acid baths were later used to bleach cotton and linen. Chlorine's bleaching powers were discovered at the end of the 18th century.

Types

Fats are boiled with alkali to create soap. Castile soap, made in Spain, was made with olive oil. England made early soaps with animal fat. When exotic vegetable oils were imported, such as flax, coconut, olive, and others, they were used for soap making as well. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, England made a lot of money from taxes on soap makers.

Glycerine was discovered in the 18th century, and in the early 19th century the alkali production process was made into a great industry by the repeatable system of boiling of fats with caustic soda. Sulfuric acid was brought back into use at this time period as the basis for the creation of caustic soda.