Instant Fels Naptha, a little experiment

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STPP Well now your cooking *LOL*

If your going to get some STPP it frees you up a lot, can't say you wont have any trouble with your hard water, but will make things so much easier, both with soap and or detergent!

Think it will still be useful for you to know the exact grains of hardness, so that you can accurately dose, figuring the gallons of water your machine holds ect. just so you don't over use the STPP! Don't want to waste it!
It may become your most prized possession *LOL*
 
Good Job

Actually the first SLS type detergents for fine wash put a dent in soap use for danties including silk and wool.

Vel,Dreft and others were mild and gentle detergents that did the job of cleaning fine fabrics in cold or warm water. Being surfactant based one didn't have to worry about water hardness and rinsing was easy. Such products were good for anything that required gentle cleaning, especially silks and wools, but couldn't deal with heavy duty dirt. That job remained with soaps until Tide came along.
 
My mom kept a box of Ivory Snow (I think that's what it was called) for washing my "little kid" clothes. Was that soap or a detergent? I recall it looking like little, thin shaved flakes rather than standard granules.

I ordered a recommended laundry soap online a few years ago. Loved the smell, and towels were soft, but cleaning power was nothing special, and my washers (had a 2006 Frigidaire TL and a 2002 Frigidaire FL at the time) didn't allow for warm rinses, so had to be present to reset dial after first spin to refill with hot or warm water. Lost interest in it and went back to Tide. Then I discovered UK Persil Bio!
 
There Were Ivory Flakes & Ivory Snow

Both were pure soap based but the former were flakes the other powder.

Nothing smells like the nursery than Ivory Snow! Nabbed a few big boxes last year and drag it out when one has a "broody" moment.

For most laundry soap will clean just as well as detergents, provided stains and special soils are treated and dealt with first. However it is going to take much more effort and hot water than with modern detergents.

IMHO White King Soap powder got it probably as best as it could be. According to my vintage box the stuff contained surfactants, soap and water softeners, so it wasn't like using pure soap thus probably avoided many problems. Have so many other things open at the moment have just left the box in my stash.
 
Soap For Modern Laundry

Have said before there are places in the EU such as France where soap is still used for laundry. Henkel sells "Le Chat" soap flakes in France, and persons still grate up Savon de Marseille for laundry in that country. Henkel amoung others also touts many detergents has having "Savon de Marseille" as part of the product. Indeed if you look at the content labels many liquid and powdered laundry detergents in Europe contain various amounts of soap. P&G and probably others in the United States also put small amounts of soap in their detergents. Tide's website states this as well.

Usually when such products claim to contain soap however it is often stearic acid or a similar componet of soap rather than a full soap product.

IIRC V-Zug and perhaps other washing machines sold in the EU/UK have special cycles for those wishing to launder with soap.
 
Well

We know the Universal Powdered Persil, had quite a complex ingredient list, also part soap IIRC.
BTW How is the smell with that, have you used it?

Funny you mention White King Soap,
Had friend, who past some years back, that worked at the White King Soap Co back in the Forties, ( S California plant.) He was a wealth of information regarding Soaps, and the commercial making of.

Think every one here in California had or used White King?

Learned a great deal from him! Think of him often.

Think it was the 1980s when the plant finally shut down??
 
Persil

Actually just removed the boxes from the shipping crate and put them into a very heavy bin liner for storage. No, haven't tried them yet as there are so many products already open.

Did you try the soaps and Persil I sent in the goodie box?

White King,

IIRC they were one of the last holdouts as one cannot remember if they closed before or after P&G discontinued Ivory Snow.

Basically the fine wash segment of the market was so dominated by Woolite and similar surfactant based products White King soap's sales went off a cliff. IIRC Huish owns the rights to the brand name.

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-12-14/business/fi-19280_1_los-angeles-soap-s-home/2
 
Laundress

Have not used the Persil or others you sent, have them on display! And did'nt want to open the old Lux as it was still sealed, and in pristine condition (ThankYou)

But did an autopsy on the P&G White *LOL*
" P&G White Naptha" prior WWII.

As with soaps of this age I found it interesting to see how much of the soap converted back to a simple compound of soda ash, and also wanted to investigate, and test for what would have been used during WWII as a replacement for the naptha ( P&G)

I Use a small keyhole saw to remove a section of the center of the soap, where I felt it would still likely be.. well... soap! Then proceeded to the center of that! My tests results pointed to a small % of mineral spirits for the P&G White.
I'm only guessing, but the naptha solvent ( little more volatile than mineral spirits) may have been a more valued commodity for the war effort? Hence the temporary switch ?

I'm going to dissolve the pieces that are left of that bar, in a solution to see if the fatty acids can be identified. Basically trying to find out, or guess what fats were used in the creation, and in what percents. Fun Fun *LOL*
What's left will get thrown into the Maytag E with some dirty clothes!
Waste not want not!
 
@stan

Yes indeed, naptha was in short supply during the duration of WWII so P&G had to switch to other chemicals for their "naptha" soap. One assumes Fels and others had to make do as well or ceased production for the duration.

P&G marketed the soap produced during the war as "P&G "White" Laundry Soap and the wrapper had wording explaining the reason behind the switch.

http://deannamoyers.ecrater.com/p/14150094/war-time-pg-laundry-soap
 
Another Word On Naptha

While many naptha soaps came on the market after the sucess of Fels, Mr. Fels invented and IIRC patented the method of binding the stuff in soap so it remained stable and didn't evaporate quickly. Not sure how or even if P&G and others got around this.

In it's time naptha soaps were the bees knees for cleaning for heavy duty laundry and housework. The petrol chemicals did the work of dealing with grease and oil removal without all the harsh rubbing. Prior or even during this period housewives, laundreses and others would add a bit of gasoline or similar substance to the boiling pot of soapy water. One can only imagine how many serious burns and or deaths that method caused if the stuff was added too close to an open flame. Then there was all the rinsing required to get the stench of petrol off one's laundry.

Benzine could be purchased in hardware or similar stores right up through the 1970's or 1980's IIRC. It was used for a variety of household purposes including stain removal.
 
Don't think

Fels ceased production..

I did see a war time ad (by Fels) that showed a solider over seas washing some article of clothing with a bar of Fels

however the women in the ad (back at the home front) was being told to conserve her usage of Fels, as best she could, and to be patient if her grocer was out of it! "the boys over seas came first)

This type of ad would be unheard of today *LOL
 
Yes luv, I replied in the other thread, lol.. It was very very sweet of you to share with me. Both bars are on the shelf next to the vintage box of Instant Fels I found this weekend. ^__^
 
Dingy, dirty people.

Kevin,

I do agree with what you said earlier up the thread. The things one can see people wearing these days is atrocious. It's enough to give one sinkin' spells.

I believe people who work in hospitals should be required to wear white, as in former days, so one can see how clean or dirty they are. If their clothes aren't clean one can surely bet their bodies aren't either. And if their bodies aren't clean then everything they touch becomes contaminated. A hospital is the best place to go these days if you want an infection. I don't agree completely with the theory that it's all because of the over use of antibiotics.

Not trying to hijack the thread; just a sidetracked observation.

Speaking of old cleaners, remember carbon tetrachloride?
 

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