The average American possesses billions of fragments of knowledge he takes for granted, and perhaps isn’t even conscious of, yet these countless tidbits of knowledge form the basis of 21st century material culture. Our 19th century counterparts were no different, and if we are to understand them at all we have to explore the many facets of their lives which today are foreign to us.
Soaps varied in method of preparation and in ingredients. Both cold process and boiling were used and each produced a somewhat different end result. Ingredients varied from crude lard or tallow to the more refined olive oil or palm oil, and from lye leached from hardwood ashes
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