Grandaughter homework,what was soap made from,in 1800.also candle making.?

Answer 1

animal fat for most people, because it was inexpensive.

beeswax for rich people.

Answer 2

Lye and Lard for soap - cooked in kettles and poured in trays to harden. Sometimes takes days to set up. Finished soap is cut into bars like brownies. People took great pride in how white was their soap - takes real skill for it to be very white and firmly set.

Lard is animal fat, rendered [slabs of fat from slaughtering cut into chunks, piled in a kettle and heated until it's melted. What doesn't melt completely gets eaten, like chittlins]. Rendering lard is a very time-consuming process, as is making lye soap. Not everyone could afford lye. People on the Plains used the roots of Yucca plants as shampoo and soap. Some felt it was superior to soap and preferred it. Some Native Americans still use Yucca for ceremonies. It's considered sacred for cleansing use.

Would agree with beeswax for candles, hand-dipped, of course. Rods of wood had holes for wicking to drop through [length of the candles being made]. Rods were held over the melted beeswax, dipped its wicks time and time again, each layer setting before a next dip [next layer]. Two chairs, back to back, would hold rods of wood with candles dangling from each rod [between chairs, like a rack]. May be why ladder-back chairs were so popular... more places to put more rods during candlemaking time. Pioneers made their own candles / soap. Many made own tables / chairs, too. Living History Museums do reinactments of these skills and several groups exist, nationwide.

Answer 3

Soap - Probably made with lard, water and lye.

If so.. They would boil it for about 2 hours. After it was finished, they would pour the soap into molds and let it form.

Candles - Hollowed stones or brick maybe.. filled with animal fat and of course some form of a wick.

Answer 4

That's a romantically personal gift. I began candle making in high school. We learned to dig into dirt the shape of candle we wanted & then pour in the hot wax. Mine looked like a watering hole b/c I colored wax blue. Then I added animal figurines (that could not ignite) to the wax B4 it cooled. Once candle is dug up, I heat an ice pick to add holes to insert wicks. This gave a nice glow effect to jungle animal scene. Another way is to fill empty milk cartons that are made of waxed cardboard. Suspend a wick from a stick laid across the top of the carton. Fill half way with melted wax of one color. Let dry. Take a small tin box (like those that some breath strips come in). Fold a $20 - $50 - $100 bill and place in tin. Now continue to fill carton with different color wax to the top. When dried, peel away carton paper. Add loving decorations to out side of candle. (I like to take post earrings that have a lost mate & press post into candle.) Wrap up nicely & this can be a could gift for Newlyweds or a nice house warming gift. It will make a pleasant light glow until candle burns down to tin & then there is the surprise money gift inside. Those are just 2 of my candle making ideas.

Answer 5

I thought that they made soap out of lye, which comes from the ash from the fires. Many early settlers in North America made their own soap. They did this by pouring hot water over wood ashes to make the alkali potash. They then boiled the potash with animal fats in iron kettles to make soap. The soap cleaned well, but much of it was harsh and smelled bad.

Answer 6

Lye was made by dripping water thru ashes ( ashes in cheesecloth bag)-- hardwood preferred. The fat was rendered by heating batches of animal fat until the fat liquified and then the solids were removed from the hot oil. The two were combined ( and you stirred, and stirred, and stirred until it thickened) and scents were added if possible-- rose petals for instance. The mixture was poured into either a large open top box and then cut to size after it cooled or into smaller molds to cool.
Pork fat was used a lot-- look at bacon and you'll see why. The skin of the pig with the fat attached was thrown into the pot to liquify the fat-- and the skins cooked. Now you have cracklin's-- If the skin was removed earlier in the process, cut in smaller pieces, then deep fried in some really hot rendered pig fat-- now you have "pig skins".

Answer 7

People who made soap in the 1800s were called chandlers. They made soap and candles from rendered animal fat (primarily beef). They mixed lye with the rendered fat (called tallow) in or to saponify (make in to soap) the mixture. Candles were also made from tallow.

Try this link for more info...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap
http://www.chandlerssoaps.com/history.html

Answer 8

. Pot ash, lye and rendered animal fat. for the soap - candles were made of whale oil or tallow

Tallow was obtained from animal fat, from sheep, cattle, or horses. This was also use in soap making.

Answer 9

The soap was lye and ash. Candles were bees wax or animal fats.

Answer 10

Animal fats.

Answer 11

Soap was made from lye, I think.