Procter and Gamble Soap with Naphtha

Procter and Gamble is a company that makes chemical products. One of their popular products made in the 1930s was soap with naphtha. What is naphtha? Naphtha is a volatile petroleum product made from the lighter distillates. It can dissolve oils, much like acetone does, because both naphtha and other oils are nonpolar molecules. At the time that this soap was made, naphtha was also used in detergents. It stays in the soap instead of evaporating because the naphtha is in an emulsion.

Right on the bar is an advertisement which proudly reminds the user that the soap has naphtha. In the 1930s, before the age of nuclear waste, public comprehension of the hazards of smoking, and rising cancer rates, people were not as concerned with the side effects of the chemicals that they used on their bodies as they are now. If a soap in modern times advertised, "The soap with more, more, more chemicals!", people would avoid it. In the 1930s, people viewed science as a means of progress that brought new wondrous chemicals, some of which were regulated. They had more faith in the producers to put out only chemicals deemed healthy. Modern advertising schemes try to make soap seem "natural" instead of revealing it to be an industrial chemical brick, which is quite the opposite of the the 1930s approach.

You can look at another exhibit which also discusses consumer artifacts.

This soap served as an all-purpose washing tool, mainly used at the sink.

Continue above the sink at the mirror.

Go back to the index to Project 4

Neil Zuckerman