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For anyone curious why this was the case, it's due to a step in wool textile production called "fulling" [0]. Stale human urine was used for the ammonium, which
by jihadjihad 5y ago
For anyone curious why this was the case, it's due to a step in wool textile production called "fulling" [0]. Stale human urine was used for the ammonium, which cleaned away dirt and oil from the cloth and made it thicker (fuller).
One of the more entertaining episodes in Don Quijote is when he and Sancho are confused by the persistent loud noise made by the hammers in a fulling mill.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling
- JumpCrisscross 5y agoAdding to this fun fact, they used urine because fulling societies hadn't yet invented soap. Cicero's family were fullers. Caesar, Cleopatra and Socrates lived in civilizations lacking soap!
- agumonkey 5y agoDue to economics ? I thought Alep soap predated Cicero by a while.
- JumpCrisscross 5y agoIt's unclear, though earliest even-dubious claims of its use go back only as far as Cleopatra, Cicero's contemporary [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_soap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_soap