Would this be anything like our brown laundry soap, Fels Naptha? I wonder. Off to read about FN.
OK, FN used as laundry soap, generally considered to be too harsh for bathing, but used to wash off toxins if one had been exposed to poison ivy, oak, etc. I remember my aunt taking the lather and applying it to her poison ivy rash and letting it dry. Also, the first soap to use naptha, which made it effective as a laundry soap.
Here's Wiki's explanation of naptha...
"
Naphtha (
/ˈnæfθə/ or
/ˈnæpθə/) normally refers to a number of flammable liquid mixtures of
hydrocarbons, i.e. a component of
natural gas condensate or a distillation product from
petroleum,
coal tar, or
peat boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons. It is a broad term covering among the lightest and most volatile fractions of the liquid hydrocarbons in petroleum. Naphtha is a colorless to reddish-brown volatile aromatic liquid, very similar to gasoline."
So, similar to gasoline, and your soap uses turpentine. Interesting. I always remember a bar of FN next to the washing machine when I was growing up, if there were stains, my mother would rub them with that old, brown bar, and they'd be gone. Now that you've made me think of those brown bars, I'm going to have to see if I can still find them in the store. You've made me nostalgic for laundry soap! lol Nice find you have there!
Another perfect example of one man's trash being another man's treasure.
