Historical Synthetic Detergent Production
To give an idea of the enormous rise in synthetic detergent production, Table
1 compiled from figures submitted by the American Soap and Detergent Association and
the German firm of Henkel & Cie shows both soap and detergent sales in the USA for
various years to 1972.
Table 1
| US Soap and Detergent Sales |
Soap Sales 1000 tons |
Synthetic sales 1000 tons |
| Year |
|
|
| 1940 |
1410 |
4.5 |
| 1950 |
1340 |
655 |
| 1960 |
583 |
1645 |
| 1972 |
587 |
4448 |
These figures reveal that immediately after the Second World War synthetics
started making inroads into the production of soap, which now seems to have settled down
to a constant whereas synthetics have increased enormously.
By 1959 although the US per capita consumption had somewhat levelled out, total
production was still rising as shown in Table 2 which has been compiled from the
1963 Census of Manufacturers by the Bureau of Census of the US Department of Commerce and
from the Henkel figures.
Table 2
| Comparative Production Figures for Synthetic
Detergents |
1958 1000
tons |
1963 1000
tons |
1972 1000
tons |
| Domestic detergents (solid) |
1200 |
1425 |
2672 |
| Domestic detergents (liquid) |
354 |
640 |
1773 |
The broad picture that appears from Table 2, is that while solid
detergents (among which of course powders are included) are making great strides forward,
the liquid detergents are increasing at a much faster rate.
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