INTRODUCTION

Traditionally, soap has been manufactured from alkali (lye) and animal fats (tallow), although
vegetable products such as palm oil and coconut oil can be substituted for tallow. American
colonists had both major ingredients of soap in abundance, and so soap making began in
America during the earliest colonial days. Tallow came as a by-product of slaughtering animals
for meat, or from whaling. Farmers produced alkali as a by-product of clearing their land; until
the nineteenth century wood ashes served as the major source of lye. The soap manufacturing
process was simple, and most farmers could thus make their own soap at home.

The major uses for soap were in the household, for washing clothes and for toilet soap, and in
textile manufacturing, particularly for fulling, cleansing, and scouring woolen stuffs. Because
colonial America was rural, soap making remained widely dispersed, and no large producers
emerged. By the eve of the American Revolution, however, the colonies had developed a minor
export market; in 1770 they sent more than 86,000 pounds of soap worth £2,165 to the West
Indies. The Revolution interrupted this trade, and it never recovered.

The growth of cities and the textile industry in the early nineteenth century increased soap usage
and stimulated the rise of soap-making firms. By 1840, Cincinnati, then the largest meatpacking
center in the United States, had become the leading soap-making city as well. The city boasted at
least seventeen soap factories, including Procter and Gamble (established 1837), which was
destined to become the nation's dominant firm. A major change in soap making occurred in the
1840s when manufacturers began to replace lye made from wood ashes with soda ash, a lye
made through a chemical process. Almost all soap makers also produced tallow candles, which
for many was their major business. The firms made soap in enormous slabs, and these were sold
to grocers, who sliced the product like cheese for individual consumers. There were no brands,
no advertising was directed at consumers, and most soap factories remained small before the
Civil War.

The period between the end of the Civil War and 1900 brought major changes to the soap
industry. The market for candles diminished sharply, and soap makers discontinued that
business. At the same time, competition rose. Many soap makers began to brand their products
and to introduce new varieties of toilet soap made with such exotic ingredients as palm oil and
coconut oil. Advertising, at first modest but constantly increasing, became the major innovation.
In 1893 Procter and Gamble spent $125,000 to promote Ivory soap, and by 1905 the sales budget
for that product alone exceeded $400,000. Advertising proved amazingly effective. In 1900 soap
makers concentrated their advertising in newspapers but also advertised in streetcars and trains.
Quick to recognize the communications revolution, the soap industry pioneered in radio
advertising, particularly by developing daytime serial dramas. Procter and Gamble originated Ma
Perkins, one of the earliest, most successful, and most long-lived of the genre that came to be
known as Soap Operas, to advertise its Oxydol soap in 1933. By 1962 major soap firms spent
approximately $250 million per year for advertising, of which 90 percent was television
advertising. In 1966, three out of the top five television advertisers were soap makers, and
Procter and Gamble was television's biggest sponsor, spending $161 million.
Advertising put large soap makers at a competitive advantage, and by the late 1920s three firms
had come to dominate the industry: (1) Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, incorporated as such in 1928 in
New York State, although originally founded by William Colgate in 1807; (2) Lever Brothers, an
English company that developed a full line of heavily advertised soaps in the nineteenth century
and in 1897 and 1899 purchased factories in Boston and Philadelphia; and (3) Procter and
Gamble.

Synthetic detergent, which was not a soap, but was made through a chemical synthesis that
substituted fatty alcohols for animal fats, had been developed in Germany during World War I to
alleviate a tallow shortage. Detergents are superior to soap in certain industrial processes, such as
the making of textile finishes. They work better in hard water, and they eliminate the soap curd
responsible for "bathtub rings." In 1933 Procter and Gamble introduced a pioneer detergent,
Dreft, which targeted the dishwashing market because it was too light for laundering clothes. It
succeeded, especially in hard-water regions, until World War II interrupted detergent marketing.

In 1940 the "big three"—Colgate, Lever, and Procter and Gamble—controlled about 75 percent
of the soap and detergent market. They produced a wide variety of products, such as shampoos,
dishwashing detergents, liquid cleaners, and toilet soap, but the most important part of their
business was heavy-duty laundry soap, which accounted for about two-thirds of sales. Procter
and Gamble had about 34 percent of the market. Lever was a close second with 30 percent, and
Colgate trailed with 11 percent. In 1946 Procter and Gamble radically shifted the balance in its
favor when it introduced Tide, the first heavy-duty laundry detergent. By 1949, Tide had
captured 25 percent of the laundry-detergent market. By 1956, even though Lever and Colgate
had developed detergents of their own, Procter and Gamble held 57 percent of the market, as
compared with 17 percent for Lever and 11 percent for Colgate. Despite Procter and Gamble's
triumph, the big three still competed fiercely.

By 1972, detergents had almost eliminated soap from the laundry market, although toilet soap
remained unchallenged by detergents. In the 1970s, bans on detergents by some local
governments, which feared contamination of their water supplies, had little impact on the
composition or sales of laundry products. In the early 2000s, the smaller firms within the
industry still produced a multitude of specialized cleansers for home and industry, although in
the highly important fields of toilet soaps, laundry soaps, and detergents, the big three remained
dominant, controlling about 80 percent of the total market.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/soap-and-detergent-industry#ixzz1FdeA8wKG

http://www.answers.com/topic/soap-and-detergent-industry
The History of Soaps and Detergents

By Mary Bellis

Cascade
While employed by Procter & Gamble, Dennis Weatherby developed and received a patent for
the automatic dishwasher detergent known by the tradename Cascade. He received his Masters
degree in chemical engineering from the University of Dayton in 1984. Cascade is a registered
trademark of the Procter & Gamble Company.

Ivory Soap
A soap maker at the Procter and Gamble company had no idea a new innovation was about to
surface when he went to lunch one day in 1879. He forgot to turn off the soap mixer, and more
than the usual amount of air was shipped into the batch of pure white soap that the company sold
under the name The White Soap. Fearing he would get in trouble, the soap maker kept the
mistake a secret and packaged and shipped the air-filled soap to customers around the country.
Soon customers were asking for more "soap that floats." When company officials found out what
happened, they turned it into one of the company’s most successful products, Ivory Soap.

Lifebuoy
The English company, Lever Brothers, an created Lifebuoy soap in 1895 and sold it as an
antiseptic soap. They later changed its name to Lifebuoy Health Soap. Lever Brothers first
coined the term "B.O." for bad odor as part of their marketing company for the soap.

Liquid Soap
William Shepphard first patented liquid soap on August 22, 1865. In 1980, the Minnetonka
Corporation introduced the first modern liquid soap called SOFT SOAP brand liquid soap.
Minnetonka cornered the liquid soap market by buying up the entire supply of the plastic pumps
needed for the liquid soap dispensers. In 1987, the Colgate Company acquired the liquid soap
business from Minnetonka.

Palmolive Soap
William Colgate started a candle and soap making company in New York City in 1806. By 1906,
the company was making over 3,000 different soaps, perfumes and other products. For example,
Colgate Dental Cream was introduced in 1877. In 1864, Caleb Johnson founded a soap company
called  B.J. Johnson Soap Co., in Milwaukee. In 1898, this company introduced a soap made of
palm and olive oils, called Palmolive. It was so successful that that the B.J. Johnson Soap Co.
changed their name to Palmolive in 1917. Another soap making company called the Peet
Brothers Co. of Kansas City started in 1872. In 1927, Palmolive merged with them to became
Palmolive Peet. In 1928, Palmolive Peet merged with Colgate to form Colgate-Palmolive-Peet.
In 1953, the name was shortened to just Colgate-Palmolive. Ajax cleanser was one of their first
major brand names introduced in the early 1940s.
Pine-Sol
Chemist, Harry A. Cole of Jackson, Mississippi invented and sold the pine-scented cleaning
product called Pine-Sol in 1929. Pine-Sol is the biggest selling household cleaner in the world.
Cole sold Pin-Sol shortly after its invention (now owned by Clorox Company) and went on to
create more pine oil cleaners called FYNE PINE and PINE PLUS. Together with his sons, Cole
started the H. A. Cole Products Co. to manufacture and sell his products. Pine forests surrounded
the area where the Coles lived, providing an ample supply of pine oil.

S.O.S Soap Pads

In 1917, Ed Cox of San Francisco, an aluminum pot salesman, invented a pre-soaped pad with
which to clean pots. As a way of introducing himself to potential new customers, Cox made the
soap incrusted steel-wool pads as a calling card. His wife named the soap pads S.O.S. or "Save
Our Saucepans." Cox soon found out that the S.O.S pads were a hotter product than his pots and
pans.

Tide
In the 1920s, Americans used soap flakes to clean their laundry. The flakes performed poorly in
hard water, leaving a ring in the washing machine, dulling colors, and turning whites gray.
Procter & Gamble began an ambitious mission to change the way Americans washed their
clothes. Researchers discovered two-part molecules which they called synthetic surfactants. Each
part of the "miracle molecules" executed a specific function--one pulled grease and dirt from the
clothes, while the other suspended dirt until it could be rinsed away. In 1933, this discovery was
introduced in a detergent called "Dreft," but it could only handle lightly soiled jobs. The next
goal was to create a detergent that could clean heavily soiled clothes. That detergent was Tide®.

Created in 1943, Tide detergent was the combination of synthetic surfactants and "builders." The
builders helped the synthetic surfactants penetrate the clothes more deeply to attack greasy,
difficult stains. Tide was introduced to test markets in October 1946 as the world’s first heavy-
duty detergent. Consumer response was immediate and intense. Tide detergent outsold every
other brand within weeks. It became so popular that store owners were forced to limit the
quantity purchased per customer.

Tide detergent was improved 22 times during its first 21 years on the market, and Procter &
Gable still strives for perfection. Each year, researchers duplicate the mineral content of water
from all parts of the United States and wash 50,000 loads of laundry to test Tide detergent’s
consistency and performance.

Formula 409
Formula 409 all-purpose cleaner was invented in 1957. 

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsoap.htm

Although the start of the synthetic detergent industry is not shrouded in the veils of history as
were the beginnings of the soap industry, it is nevertheless not easy to pinpoint exactly when the
detergent industry, as such, came into being. The primary problem is to decide exactly what is
being referred to as a synthetic detergent. The term itself leads to confusion. In the USA the
words surfactant or syndet are being used, whilst in Europe the term 'tenside' (for tensio-active
material) is coming into fashion.

Definitions

Many definitions of synthetic detergent have been proposed, all of which are very wide. The
Comiti International de Dirivis Tensio Actifs has after several years of deliberation agreed on the
following definitions:

Detergent: Product the formulation of which is specially devised to promote the development of
detergency. Note: A detergent is a formulation comprising essential constituents (surface active
agents) and subsidiary constituents (builders, boosters, fillers and auxiliaries).

Surface Active Agent: Chemical compound which, when dissolved or dispersed in a liquid is
preferentially absorbed at an interface, giving rise to a number of physico-chemical or chemical
properties of practical interest. The molecule of the compound includes at least one group with
an affinity for markedly polar surfaces, ensuring in most cases solubilization in water, and a
group which has little affinity for water. Note: Compositions in general are usually mixtures of
such compounds.

Amphiphilic Product: Product comprising in its molecule, at the same time one or more
hydrophilic groups and one or more hydrophobic groups. Note: surface active agents are
amphiphilic products.