Handmade Soap Rose

The chemist and druggist R. S. Hudson began manufacturing a soap powder in the back of his shop in 1837. By 1854 he was employing 10 young women in the production process and in 1875 he opened a factory at Bank Hall, Liverpool. Hudson's soap became very famous with names like "Rinso" and "Omo". It became part of Lever Brothers in 1908.

William Hesketh Lever and his brother James, sons of a wholesale grocer in Bolton, bought a small soap works in Warrington in 1885. Using vegetable oils like palm oil, rather than tallow, they produced a good, free-lathering soap. By 1888 output had increased to 450 tons per week and larger premises for the manufacture of "Sunlight Soap" were constructed. By the end of the century "Sunlight Soap" had been joined by "Lifebuoy", "Lux" and "Vim" among other products and overseas activities had been established in the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Germany and elsewhere.

During the 19th century soap manufacture was a very fragmented activity. Many old plans of towns all over the country provide evidence of small local soap works, and some housewives in rural areas would still make their own soap in the home. By the mid-20th century soap manufacture in Britain had been substantially consolidated by Lever Brothers into a modern industry.

In addition to the traditional sale of many kinds of soap products by pharmacists through retail outlets, soap itself has found numerous applications in pharmacy, such as pill making, lotions and liniments, dentifrices, plasters, enemas, suppositories and poultices, in addition to veterinary applications.

Although advances in the chemistry of surface active agents in the 20th century have been remarkable and have revolutionised approaches to the manufacture of household and industrial cleansers, laundering agents, shampoos and other cosmetics, traditional soaps have retained their popularity for washing and bathing, and soap may well see another century of large scale manufacture and everyday use.

Acknowledgments The author is grateful to Ms Claire Tunstall, archivist of the Unilever Historical Archives and to staff of the Wellcome Institute Library. The names "Pears", "Rinso", "Omo", "Sunlight", "Lifebuoy", "Erasmic", "Vinolia", "Gibbs" and "Vim" are registered trade marks of Unilever Plc.