2010:365:268 Evolution.

It has been around in one form or another for nearly five thousand years!  There are records of it from ancient Babylon and it was in common use in ancient Egypt.  The name was coined by the Romans and Pliny the Elder makes reference to it.
Through the centuries soap has played an important part in the lives of people worldwide.  And it has changed!  The development of different processes has, in each generation, brought about improvements and developments in a product that we all use.  More information that you need or want is available on various web sites.
My interest was in the evolution in my own use of soap over the past ten years.

The solid block, sitting in a soap dish, often with an undesirable pool of soapy goo in the bottom is the first memory.  When worn down to almost nothing these pieces were collected and melted together to be formed into a usable block again!  In the post-war generation nothing was wasted.  The worst bit about the block of soap was after you'd been to the beach and grains of sand became embedded in the surface!  Nowadays that would be called exfoliation - then it was deemed carelessness!

I don't remember how recently the pump dispenser began to appear as commonplace in the home.  

The brands multiplied and the perfume range expanded to meet a growing demand.  Fewer and fewer solid soaps could be found in supermarkets and an ever increasing quantity of liquid varieties replaced them.

Then recently one manufacturing company produced for the domestic market what was already available in fast food outlets throughout the country.  An automatic dispenser has arrived at an affordable price.

Now the marketing line is that no longer do you need to touch the germ ridden top of a pump - all you need do is put your hand under the nozzle and a measured quantity of soap is dispensed into your palm!  Of course, if you happen to lift the unit from the front then you'll get soap on your hand as well whether you want it or not!  

I wonder where the next development in soap will take us .... 

365Project had this collage as today's picture!

Be thou a bright flame before me,

be thou a guiding star above me,

be thou a smooth path below me,

be thou a kindly shepherd behind me,

today - tonight - and forever.

Columba (c. 521-597)