Soap’s invention wasn’t the work of a single person but a process that evolved over time. The oldest evidence of soap-making comes from ancient Babylon, around 2800 BC. Archaeologists found clay tablets detailing a simple recipe: mixing animal fats with wood ash.
Around 1550 BC, ancient Egyptians also had a form of soap. They combined vegetable and animal oils with alkaline salts for cleaning purposes.
The Romans had a story about soap’s name originating from Mount Sapo, where rain washed a combination of animal fat and ash into the Tiber River, aiding in cleaning.
The oldest record comes from the Sumer region of Mesopotamia, now in southern Iraq, almost 5,000 years ago. The first written record of using soap to wash a person’s body dates back to 2200 BC.
Eventually, we found out how soap works. Soaps are sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids with a water-hating tail and a water-loving head on the same molecule, which looks much like a tadpole. These molecules arrange in water in a sphere called a micelle, encasing any dirt or oil present. The micelles easily wash off, laden with dirt and grease.
Read more:
Contributors
Copyright @smorescience. All rights reserved. Do not copy, cite, publish, or distribute this content without permission.
