History of Washing - How Did We Improve Our Washing Methods Since Prehistory.pdf - Historia techniki - morefaya2006

of washing

How did we improve our washing methods since prehistory?

history

content

This document summarizes the “History of Washing” and explains how washing methods have been improved

in time by people.

The history of washing is divided into time periods as: Prehistory, Ancient Times, Middle Ages, Renaissance,

18th and 19th centuries, 20th and 21st centuries.

These periods were studied in terms of the following topics:

• Soap

• Bathing

• Laundry

• Water Supply

• Plumbing

• Environmental Impact

• Fabrics

• Biographies of famous Scientists

• Milestones in the History of Washing Machines and Dryers

• Soap-Making in Marseilles

• Milestones in the Development of Laundry and Dish Products

In addition to this we added “A Brief History of Procter & Gamble”.

The web version of this ‘History of Washing’ lealet is available on P&G’s science communication website

www.scienceinthebox.com, which also includes an educational animation module on the history of laundry (in

different languages).

IntRoDUctIon

Washing and everything related to washing has developed signiicantly since the beginning of history. Nowadays

people are using laundry detergents, synthetic detergents, washing machines, dryers and there are plants to treat

the wastewater of washing. While in the prehistory people used to have only water and used rivers and streams

as water supply, defecated in nature and their wastes had a low impact on the environment. Even though all these

developments seem very familiar and normal to us nowadays, you may have asked this already to yourself: “How did

we come to this level in washing?”

The answer to this question is a long and interesting story, the “History of Washing”, starting from prehistory till the

21st century.

PReHIStoRY (100,000 – 30,000 B.c.)

Prehistory covers the 2.5 million years of man’s existence before the advent of written records. How early man lived

during this period is determined largely through archaeological evidence.

Soap

If prehistoric man cleaned himself or his clothing, he used water only.

Baths

Prehistoric people may have learned from experience that eating with dirty hands could be dangerous and often

fatal. This may have led them to wash their dirty hands in water, providing the irst example of washing having

an impact on human health. With the discovery of ire about 1.8 million years ago, it’s possible that water was

heated for washing.

Water supply

Early man lived near rivers and streams, and used the water for drinking.

Human waste

People living in small societies, such as families or small tribes,

usually defecated privately near a stream or somewhere far

enough away from where they lived that the smell wouldn’t

bother them. When it came to Neanderthal man, this

often took place deep inside a cave. This became a

health problem once populations grew and some

cultures became sedentary.

Environmental impact

Since prehistoric man lived in a small group or

community, and was primarily concerned with

activities needed for survival (hunting and

gathering food), the environmental impact

of human activity was small and, in a sense,

hardly different from the impact of groups

of animals. Any wastes that were generated

would be degraded quickly. The human

population density was far below the carrying

capacity of the environment.

Further reading:

Stalmans, M. & Guhl, W. (2003). An Introduction to the Historical

Developments of Laundry. Household and Personal Care Today,

pp. 17-22.

AncIent tIMeS (2500 B.c. – 476 A.D. approx. 3000 years)

In ancient times, bathing and clothes washing evolved. Soap began to be used, both for bathing

and for laundering clothes. The Romans used public laundries or “fulleries”, staffed by workers who

washed clothing with a version of detergents. The fulleries were not a healthy environment for those

who worked in them. Public baths became popular, as bathing was seen as a social event. Aqueducts

brought water into the homes of the wealthy, whereas the working class relied on hand-carrying

water from the public fountains and rivers to their homes. Plumbing was still rudimentary, with

waste carried through open drains to rivers. Because of the lack of waste treatment of any kind, the

environmental impact of human activity was high, especially near the cities.

Romans were a fashion-conscious people and paid much attention to their attire.

Soap

The irst primitive soap was made from ashes from wood and other

plants, by extraction with water. Ashes from halophytes – plants

from the Mediterranean region - such Saponaria sp., Salicornia

sp. and Salsola sp., were particularly effective for soap-

making. The fact that such alkaline solutions had cleaning

properties was probably discovered accidentally.

According to legend, the word soap, or rather the

process of saponiication, derives from Sapo Hill in

Rome, where animals were sacriiced and cremated.

Tallow, or animal fat, and ash were washed down

the hill by rainwater, into the clay soil along the

Tiber River. Women found that washing clothes

was easier if they used this clay. A less romantic

derivation is the name of the Italian town of Savona,

where large quantities of soap were manufactured

during the 9th century A.D. In French, “savon”

means soap. The oldest reference to purposeful

soap-making dates back to 2800 B.C. Fats were

boiled with ashes to make soap. Gallic and Germanic

tribes carried out saponiication by trial and error. In

the process of soap-making, they also produced glycerol

as a result of the action of alkali on fat (goat tallow, birch

wood ash and herbal extract colouring). Human or animal

urine was commonly used as a cleaning agent in ancient times.

Its cleaning properties are due to the production of the alkaline

ammonium carbonate from fermentation of urea. Its use was irst

reported in the Orient, from which it spread to the West.

Baths

The irst Roman baths were built around 312 B.C. and continued to be popular until the fall of the Roman Empire

in the 6th century. At the end of the day, Roman men and women would gather at the public bathhouses. Some

wealthy families had their own bathhouses, yet they would often invite friends to bathe with them, as bathing was

very much a social event. Afterwards, they would spend the rest of the evening on an elaborate dinner. When

the Roman Empire fell in 467 A.D., their habits with regards to personal cleanliness were also lost. In the Middle

Ages, this lack of hygiene would have dramatic consequences. The ancient Greeks “washed” themselves with

lumps of clay, had steam baths and rubbed their skin with oil, such as olive oil, which they then scraped off with

an instrument called a “strigil”, along with any dirt. The use of soap for bathing was reported as early as 1500 B.C.

by the ancient Egyptians.

Laundry

Frescoes in Pompeii show how important laundry was for the Romans. Laundry was not done at home, at least not

by the wealthier Romans. It was done at the public “fulleries” – the equivalent of the modern laundromat – by

workers called “fullones.” “The large fulleries have several features in common. They contain a large hall with very

large basins in the loor, communicating with one another. In these basins clothes were put to soak and cleaned.

Along three sides of the hall are pressing-bowls, usually made of terracotta, often the lower half of a dolium.

Here the material was further cleaned, by workers who ’jumped‘ or ’danced‘ on the clothes (the so-called saltus

fullonicus; Seneca, Epistulae 15,4), while they leaned on small walls on either side. Detergents were used, such as

the creta fullonica (fuller’s earth), that was stored in small bowls. It helped remove the grease and enhanced the

colours. Urine, collected in public urinals, was used for bleaching, and so was sulphur, which was burned under

wooden frames over which the cloth was suspended. After the pressing, the material was taken to the basins again,

for the removal of the detergents. Fullers were organized into powerful Guilds. Clothes were cleaned by treading

(fulling) in stone bowls containing clay and ammoniated water. After rinsing once, the bowls were illed once

more and the clothes were rinsed again. Drying took place on bell-shaped wire frames under which sulphur was

burned.” (from the Ostia Anctica web site). The Roman laundries were not a healthy work environment: workers

were constantly exposed to polluted, foul-smelling air and their skin was in constant contact with chemicals in the

water. As a result they ran a high risk of developing work-related illnesses. The ancient Greeks used only water,

without soap, for laundry.

Water supply

During the early years, water for Rome was brought in from the Tiber River. Aqueducts that piped the water from

rivers or wells into the city were built during the Late Empire. Wealthy Romans had the water piped all the way into

their homes, but most people had to rely on the public fountains or water delivery by a contractor or Aquarius.

Some homes had cisterns in which rainwater was collected. The aqueducts and cisterns of Carthage (Tunisia, N.

Africa) are well preserved to this day.

Plumbing

Rome was well equipped with open drains and sewers, which ran parallel to streets. Many houses had latrines,

but apartments did not. Where there were no latrines, chamber pots were used. These were emptied in the

public drains and sewers, or in public urinal pots. The large public urinal pots at the street corners were

periodically emptied by “fullers” who worked in the laundry facilities, where urine was used as a laundry

additive. Public toilets were large, rectangular rooms that could be used by many people at the same time.

The construction was similar to today’s “outhouses,” but the waste was continuously lushed away by

running water in the sewers down below.

Environmental impact

Wastewater from households as well as from public toilets was lushed away to the rivers, often via open

channels that ran alongside or in the middle of the streets. Out of necessity, ancient civilizations were

much more tolerant of foul odors than modern society! As these sewage streams and human waste

streams were discharged to the rivers without any form of treatment, the environmental impact of

human activity was high. Similar situations still exist to this day, in developing nations. A well known

example is that of the sacred Ganges River in India, used by millions for bathing and washing but also

the receptacle for untreated sewage and human waste from the cities.

Fabrics

Men and women of Rome were very interested in fashion. They wore tunics, which were knee-length

for the men and loor-length for the women. Heavy white togas were worn on formal occasions. The

fabrics of the time were wool, linen, silk and cotton. The women wore make-up and jewelry, mostly

gold and precious stones among higher classes, amber jewelry among lower classes.

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