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"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments,
but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia."
- Joseph Wood Krutch
The Infinite Cat Project
Presented by Mike Stanfill, Private Hand
Illustration, Animation, Web Design
www.privatehand.com
Soap is a surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and
cleaning. It usually comes in a solid moulded form, termed bars due
to its historic and most typical shape. In this century, the use of
thick liquid soap has become increasingly widespread, especially from
soap dispensers in public washrooms. Applied to a soiled surface, soapy
water effectively holds particles in suspension so the whole of it can
be rinsed off with clean water. In the developed world, synthetic detergents
have superseded soap as a laundry aid.
Many soaps are mixtures of sodium (soda) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids which can be derived from oils or fats by reacting them with an alkali (such as sodium or potassium hydroxide) at 80°–100 °C in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding glycerol and crude soap. Historically, the alkali used was potassium made from the deliberate burning of vegetation such as bracken, or from wood ashes.
Soap is derived from either oils or fats. Sodium Tallowate, a common ingredient in many soaps, is in fact derived from rendered beef fat. Soap can also be made of vegetable oils, such as olive oil. Soap made entirely from such oils, or nearly so, is called castile soap. The use of the word "soap" has become such a household name that even cleaning solutions for the body that don't have soap in the ingredients are referred to as soap..
Many soaps are mixtures of sodium (soda) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids which can be derived from oils or fats by reacting them with an alkali (such as sodium or potassium hydroxide) at 80°–100 °C in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding glycerol and crude soap. Historically, the alkali used was potassium made from the deliberate burning of vegetation such as bracken, or from wood ashes.
Soap is derived from either oils or fats. Sodium Tallowate, a common ingredient in many soaps, is in fact derived from rendered beef fat. Soap can also be made of vegetable oils, such as olive oil. Soap made entirely from such oils, or nearly so, is called castile soap. The use of the word "soap" has become such a household name that even cleaning solutions for the body that don't have soap in the ingredients are referred to as soap..