Manufacture
Pears soap was made using a process entirely different to that for other soaps. A mixture of tallow and other fats was saponified by caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) in industrial methylated spirits. After saponification was completed the resulting glycerol was left in the batch. Batches were made not in huge pans, but in small kettle-like vessels and as soon as the translucent amber liquid had cooled enough to solidify it was extruded into opaque oval bars that were cut into bath- or toilet weight tablets ready for beginning their long drying spell in the drying rooms (ovens). The hot liquid soap fresh from the vessel had a total fatty matter (TFM) of 45% compared with the TFMs of 70-80% usual in soaps made by the conventional method. The TFM increased considerably as the alcohol content fell during drying.
The entire Pears plant was a small almost self-contained annexe situated at the rear of the administration block. The plant was run by a handful of staff who not only had experience of the specialised process, but had developed immunity to the effects of breathing the alcohol-laden atmosphere in the plant building.
The concave shape of the soap is formed by shrinkage while the soap is drying, and is not due to deliberate moulding.
Bars of soap produced in the factory come in two sizes: 75 g and 125 g. Nowadays this soap comes in three colours - the classic amber, the green, and mint (blue color). Each variety has a unique aroma. The soap now comes in two new sizes: 69 g and 119 g.
Recent changes to quality of ingredients used in the manufacturing process (see "Changes to the Formula" below) have resulted in a noticeably different shape (flatter rather than concave) and difference in scent with the classic transparent amber bar. The aroma, which used to be a characteristically mild, spicy fragrance, is now a very strong scent. In the UK the same has been noticed in 2009 with a scent almost like coal tar and with a reduction in the moisturizing properties, and in a differently shaped bar.
Read more about this topic: Pears Soap
Famous quotes containing the word manufacture:
“Yes, that’s what I needed. Living flesh from humans for my experiments. What difference did it make if a few people had to die? Their flesh taught me how to manufacture arms, legs, faces that are human. I’ll make a crippled world whole again.”
—Robert Tusker, and Michael Curtiz. Wells (Preston Foster)
“The profession of magician, is one of the most perilous and arduous specialisations of the imagination. On the one hand there is the hostility of God and the police to be guarded against; on the other it is as difficult as music, as deep as poetry, as ingenious as stage-craft, as nervous as the manufacture of high explosives, and as delicate as the trade in narcotics.”
—William Bolitho (1890–1930)
“Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)