Soap and the War

From the Brecon County Times, 18th May 1916.

Soap and the War.

We were looking at the charming picture reproduced elsewhere in our columns by the makers of Puritan Soap.

“Curious, isn't it,” said my friend, the munitions expert, “how far reaching are the ramifications of this great world-war. Every pound of Puritan Soap sold means that the end of the war is so much nearer.”

“How do you make that to be,” said I, for it seemed a somewhat far-fetched statement.
“It's true enough,” said my scientific friend.  “Every ton of olive oil used for making Puritan Soap gives a couple of cwts. of glycerine, the base of cordite. Cordite, as everybody knows, is the chief propellant explosive used by Army and Navy alike.  A ton of olive oil gives glycerine for a ton of cordite or thereabout.  Practically the whole of the glycerine produced in the manufacture of Puritan Olive Oil Soap is refined and distilled by Christr. Thomas & Bros. Ltd., the makers, and used for explosives manufacture.”

“So that the housewife who buys Puritan Soap is not only getting the best soap that money can buy, but is helping to give the Government more glycerine and to pile up the munitions that are going to give us a glorious victory.”

“Exactly so,” said my friend, the expert.

[cwt. is the abbreviation for hundredweight, or 112 pounds.]