What is scourer in the process of soap manufacturing?

[Michael]

Sorry for asking such a question, but I hope there may be some people here who are interested in the history of industrial soap making. I will be grateful for explaning what is meant by the term "scourer" here:

"When the use of abrasives for scourers was introduced, Lever personally instructed that no man should be permitted to work in the dusty parts of the process for more than a week at a time."

 

[Michael]

Can "scourer" mean "scouring soap"?

 

[IanT]

Thats a real good question which I too would love to know the answer...hmmmm....

 

[Michael]

I understand it might look strange. I have to explain I've learned English as a foreign language.

 

[IanT]

I think youve got it right though...all I could find on a google search is those steel or copper scrubby things for pots and pans (these are scourers I think) and it also said salt is a scourer, so I would assume they were either polishing the soap and the dust (which was technically unfinished soap) could have been harmful to inhale because it might have still contained some lye in it, or if soap built up on the lungs it would be REALLY hard to breath and probably be really painful.


hope that helps!?

 

[Scotsoap]

Perhaps you could post a larger section of text so that we may see this in a better perspective. The 'scouring' could have been anything, possibly vessels and not necessarily the soap itself.

 

[sunflwrgrl7]

A scourer is any abrasive material, powder, etc. that aids scrubbing and removal of substances from a surface. Salt can be a scourer and it works extremely well on copper bottom pans when mixed with vinegar, there are scouring powders such as Comet and Ajax, there are also scourers in certain types of soaps, such as pumice soap, seeds, luffa powder, or even a slice of luffa, etc. And there are scouring pads such as steel wool, used to scrub pots and pans. From the sentence you posted, it sounds like whatever scouring agents they were putting into Lever soap, it was probably a very fine powder and harmful to inhale too much of - thus the security measures. Hope that helps.

 

[Michael]

Yes, this way it makes a clearer picture - a product, mix of soap and abrasive. Sorry for the lack of information in the question, but that was the problem. Thanks everybody!