History In a Bubble: Great Moments In Bathing

c. 2500 BC - Residents of the Indus Valley build a public bath with a highly-developed drainage system and equate the act of bathing as a daily ritual of piety.

The ancient Egyptians invent soap from fragrant oils, animal fats and saponin, a natural cleanser extracted from the soapwort plant.

Assyrians begin adding perumed oils to their bathwater and exfoliating with powdered pumice stone.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, bathes in strawberry and raspberry juices and asses’ milk poured from sealed jars.

c. 520 BC - Greek philosopher Pythagoras advises bathing 70 times in asses’ milk after an olive oil massage for smooth skin.

c. 350 BC - Greek philosopher Diognes resides in a bath tub eating only cabbages and drinking water cupped in his hands until his death at the age of 90.

c. 230 BC - Archimedes allegedly discovers his hydrostatics principle (which states that a body immersed in water will displace a volume of fluid that weighs as much as the body would weigh in air) when he steps into the bath and watches the water overflow. He is so delighted that he rushes home naked, crying "Eureka! Eureka!" ("I have found it!").
According to legend, Archimedes uses this discovery to prove that the goldsmith of King Hieron II of Syracuse had adulterated a golden crown with silver. Archimedes realizes that if the gold had been mixed with silver (which is less dense than gold), the crown would have a greater volume and therefore displace more water than an equal weight of pure gold. The crown was found to be impure and the goldsmith executed.

217 - The Romans construct a "thermac" public bath on an artificial platform 20 feet in height and covering an area of 28 acres.
Allowing for 2,500 persons to bathe simultaneously, the facility included games, anointments, sweatacts, stewings, hot, tepid and cold waters (the "frigidarium:) and a library.

Romans bring the concept of daily bathing to Britain. the practice dies out once they depart in the 4th Century.

c. 1347 - In the wake of The Black Death, many Europeans decide that hot water weakens the body and allows deadly toxins to penetrate the skin and refuse to immerse themselves except on doctors' orders.
Although public baths are often available in larger towns, they prove far more popular for recreational uses than matters of personal hygiene. The wealthy commonly drench themselves with perfume to conceal resulting unpleasant body odors.

Regular bathing becomes popular with the reign of George IV. Baths were a mixture of hot water and milk with herbs such as flax seeds to soften the skin.

July 13, 1793 - Swiss-born scientist and physician Jean-Paul Marat, a member of the radical Jacobin faction and author of Reign of Terror "death lists" during the French Revolution, is stabbed to death in his bathtub by political enemeny Charlotte Corday of the Girondin faction.
Suffering from a disfiguring skin disease, Marat was accustomed to sitting in the bath for hours at the time. Corday herself was guillotined for the murder four days later.

1819 - Paris' 700,000 inhabitants collectively purchase an estimated 600,000 baths.

1834 - President Andrew Jackson has the first bathtub installed in the White House.

1839 - Victorian-era Brittons view cleanliness as "next to godliness." Though soap is widely available, it remains a pricey commodity.

c. 1850 - Indoor bathrooms begin to be built in homes, replacing the customary tin tubs placed in front of a sitting room fire. Soap becomes affordable to all, with brands such as Lever, Lux, Lifebouy and Shield first making their appearance.

Dec. 28, 1917 - Journalist H.L. Mencken's "A Neglected Anniversary," a fictitious if imaginative history of the invention of the modern bathtub, appears in the New York Evening Mail, prompting hundreds of reprints and perpetuating many falsehoods tied to the luxury of private bathing.