Soap Billheads

Soap making in the American colonies was largely a household art in the beginning. When the second ship sent out from England to the Jamestown colony arrived, there were landed a number of Germans and Poles, skilled craftsmen, among whom were several proficient in handling fat and soap- ashes. The candle and the tallow dip, then the ordinary means of illumination, have always constituted in their manufacture a branch of the soap maker's business, but in those days it was a far more important one than it is to-day. Newport, R. I., had a number of these establishments by the middle of the last century. Boston and all New England were likewise active in this trade, owing to the large whaling interests there, which furnished the sperm- oil.

While there were small soap- boiling establishments in nearly all the large towns by 1795, it is safe to say that they did not produce a great deal over $300,000 annually. The bulk of the product consumed was, as has already been stated, home-made. The increased importance of the soap industry thus developed in England, together with the many new uses to which the product was soon being put, especially as an auxiliary in other manufacturing processes, was speedily felt on this side of the water. New England was then the principal center of the manufacture for the United States, although New York and Philadelphia were gaining prominence.

While processes and methods were thus, comparatively speaking, at a standstill during the first four decades of the present century, the soap industry, nevertheless, steadily advanced in importance, and prepared itself for the wonderful development that immediately followed the discoveries of Chevreul in 1841. The impetus thus given is shown in the fact that only one year later, in 1842, there were produced in the United States alone 50,000,000 pounds of soap, 18,000,000 pounds of tallow candles, and 3,000,000 pounds of wax and spermaceti candles, while exports to the value of more than $1,000,000 attested the preeminence we were gaining in the markets of the world.

In common, too, with almost every manufacturing industry of importance, the making of soap was soon facilitated by the introduction of machinery. In the decade ending in 1850 the annual production of soap and candles had reached nearly $10,000,000, and by 1860 it had increased to still greater proportions.

Among the great firms engaged in the business were Morgan, Kendall Mfg makers of Soapine, B. T. Babbitt, N. K. Fairbank & Company, James S. Kirk & Company, D. S. Brown & Company, Procter & Gamble, and Colgate & Company. Read more.