Soap and detergent - Early synthetic detergents | Britannica
Soap and detergent - Soap and detergent - Early synthetic detergents: If turkey-red oil—i.e., sulfated castor oil, still used in textile and leather industries today—is considered the first synthetic detergent, the industry began in the midst of the past century. The first synthetic detergents for general use, however, were produced by the Germans in the World War I period so that ...