A Sanitary History Of Household Bleach

More than 85 percent of American households today utilize a bleach for whitening, cleaning and sanitizing chores. Yet the process is scarcely new, with ancient peoples trying valiantly to keep garments clean and white, medieval folk relying upon Dutch craftsmen to render the best results, and technology not aiding until the early 20th century.

What Americans take for granted in terms of speed bleaching today was an arduous task that took days, even weeks to accomplish. And it all began with attention to the heavens, most especially, the sun.

5000 B.C.
Egyptians relied upon thorough washing and sun-drying to whiten garments.

3000 B.C.
Bleaches were derived from mostly wood ashes, which formed lye solutions when mixed with water. Properly mixed, lyes were found to be excellent whiteners, if clothes were soaked in the solution for only a limited time, then sun-dried. The process was repeated, keeping an eye on the tendency for fabrics to disintegrate in the harsh solution.

1000-1200 A.D.
The Dutch became the laundry experts for European society. Without disclosing their secret, they added sour milk to the lye solution, softening its harsh effects. That meant the soaking and sun-drying could be repeated more times than when lye was used alone. But the process took up to eight weeks and required space to spread fabrics out to dry in the sun.

1200 A.D.
English Dictionary's first reference to "bleach."

1598
Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" notes: "Behold, what honest cloathes [sic] you send forth to bleaching."

1756
Edinburgh scientist Francis Home discovered that a weak solution of sulfuric acid in place of sour milk cut bleaching time to 12 hours.

1772
German-born Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele was the first to discover chlorine, an essential ingredient in subsequent modern bleaches. Nearly 40 years later, English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy gave chlorine its name, derived from the Greek word for greenish-yellow.

1792
In France, Claude Louis Berthollet, Napoleon's scientific expert, noted that chlorine gas added to a solution of potash created a powerful bleach. The idea made the rounds of Europe, but putting the exact amount of each component into the mix was difficult. And potash was pricey.

1799
Scottish chemist Charles Tennant took Berthollet's chlorine idea, substituted limestone for the potash, and made a bleaching powder (calcium hypochlorite). In decades, bleaching powder spread over Europe, whitening not only clothes but also other products, especially writing paper. But because the powder contained so much chlorine, it still was expensive.

1897
A century after Tennant's discovery, Sears Roebuck & Co. listed five bleaching products in its catalogue: ammonia, borax, lye, and blueing and dry blueing -- the latter two referring to a liquid and a powder solution of plant additives, mostly indigo, designed to make clothes whiter or slightly blue.

1913
The Electro-Alkaline Co. was formed in Oakland, Calif., to make sodium hypochlorite bleach, derived from chlorinating a solution of caustic soda, a process developed a century earlier. The active ingredient of most household bleach today, this was costly to make until the early 20th century, when cheaper electricity permitted electrolyzing salt brine from salt ponds. Touted as a disinfectant, bleach was sold in big crocks only to institutional users such as commercial laundries and water companies.

1922
The company's name was changed to Clorox Chemical (now The Clorox Co.). First it gave away pint bottles directly to consumers through a local retail store, then distributed them in California, Oregon and Washington.

1924
Literary Digest extolled the virtues of household bleaching in "The Sanitary Value of Bleach" (June 7).

1925
First advertisement of Clorox.

Sept. 13, 1941
Although the United States had not entered World War II, national defense priorities, Business Week reported, included chlorine bleach to purify water in military camps and in the paper industry as a result of reduced shipments from Europe.

1947
Household bleach was accepted in The Good Housekeeping Book, edited by Helen W. Kendall.

1957
Procter & Gamble attempted to acquire Clorox, which sold about half of all domestic household bleach. The Federal Trade Commission said no.

1994
The bleach market became complex because of the availability of both chlorine and non-chlorine bleaches (with various fragrances, forms and color-safe applications), the inclusion of bleaches in detergents, and the environmental debate over reducing the chlorine byproduct dioxin.

Today
The biggest growth area for sodium hypochlorite bleaches is in laundry, cleaning and disinfection of water supplies in developing countries. And, in the United States, a growing market for swimming pool cleansers. Thomas V. DiBacco is a historian at American University.

Washington Post
July 3, 1997