MAKING WATER PURE: A HISTORY OF WATER SOFTENING FROM POTASH TO TIDE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY _______________________________________________________________________ by Alexandra L. Straub May 2020 Examining Committee Members: Jessica Roney, Advisory Chair, Department of History Hilary Lowe, Department of History Bryant Simon, Department of History Andrew Isenberg, External Member, University of Kansas Kendra Smith-Howard, External Member, University at Albany-SUNY i ABSTRACT Making Water Pure: A History of Water Softening from Potash to Tide, is a history of water softening in the United States from 1860 through 1970. Water’s materiality, specifically its tendency to dissolve geological features, consistently interfered with labor processes, especially those that relied on the use of soap or steam. For this reason, the management and control over the quality of water in both domestic and industrial spaces was regular and in many cases economically imperative. Nineteenth-century laborers dealt with hard water on the individual level. They experimented with a variety of different chemicals and methods, including the addition of lye, coffee, blood meal, and wool fiber to water. Throughout the twentieth century, the requirements of industrial efficiency as well as new consumer technologies demanded fast, easy, and standard ways to soften water. This motivated manufactures to produce mechanical water softening systems and synthetic chemicals. This dissertation traces this change and asserts that the history of getting water soft is a history of environmental control and management. Water softening is a lens through which to explore often overlooked actors in the history of managing nonhuman nature such as women, domestic workers, laborers, home economists, advertisers, and commercial chemists. Hard water is a thread that connects usually separate categories such as the home and the factory, industrial chemicals and household cleaners. The control over water was uneven and incomplete and allows for the exploration of the tensions intrinsic in the attempted mastery over nature. The regularity of making soft water reveals not only society’s relationship with water, but the social nature of water itself. Water is a product of ecological, social, and technological discourses and practices-- a hybrid of both environment and culture. To soften water was ii to make nature fit; it was an effort to standardize nonhuman nature so that it would cooperate with certain technologies, processes, and cultural assumptions. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of Andrew Isenberg. In my first semester as a master’s student at Temple University, Drew pushed me outside of my scholarly comfort zone. The simple “minute” in the beginning of his seminar helped me embrace my own voice. After that year, I spent a summer on a bicycle traveling from Baltimore to San Francisco, confronting summer thunderstorms in Virginia, switchbacks in the Rocky Mountains, and irritated cars and cattle in Nevada. As I made my way across the continent, I was acutely aware of the natural terrain, weather, wildlife as well as people, traffic, and my own two tires. When I got back, Drew helped me to make sense of that experience, translating my curiosity about the natural world into a fundamental pillar of my scholarly trajectory. From there Drew encouraged and cultivated my interests and focused my attention to the interactive relationship between people and nature. Through the next six years, he helped me to rein in my big ideas to create the contours of this dissertation. I am grateful for the countless feedback, discussions, and recommendations having to do with the project and life. I am grateful for his kindness over the years (including the time he changed a flat tire of my car). And finally, I am grateful he saw the scholar in me, even before I did. I am indebted to the excellent scholars who make up my committee. This project was shaped long ago by conversations about people and water with Hilary Lowe. Jess Roney has provided me with training as a historian, opportunities to workshop my writing, and generous feedback. Hilary and Jess offered their time, expertise, and unending support throughout my time at Temple. The scholarship of both Bryant Simon iv and Kendra Smith-Howard has inspired my dissertation immensely. I am grateful to have such smart and talented people willing to lend their expertise to make my project better. I had the joy of working with an amazing cohort of graduate students while at Temple University. I am especially grateful to my fellow graduate students who offered me advice, friendship, guidance, and a shared love of karaoke. Thanks especially to the participants of the Temple Early Atlantic Seminar for their excellent critiques and feedback of dissertation chapters. And thank you to Jess Roney and Travis Glasson for their thoughtful comments and encouragement of my participation in the seminar. My dissertation is so much better for it. Finally, thanks to Jesse Curtis, Steve Hausmann, and Travis Roy for their willingness to read anything at a moment’s notice. Our little writing group gave me deadlines, accountability, and more than a bit of joy. During the writing of this dissertation, I worked at the Temple University Writing Center and the Office of the Graduate School. Both Lorraine Savage and Zebulon Kendrick kept me employed through the years enabling me to write a dissertation and keep the lights on at home. Lorraine made me feel like I was part of the larger graduate community at Temple University. As a frequent participant in Writing Center retreats, I saw firsthand what an important program Lorraine and the writing center offer to graduate students. I am indebted to Zebulon Kendrick for keeping me in a position as a graduate extern for the past three years. A majority of my dissertation was completed within that office. Thanks to everyone in that office for creating a positive work environment and for always making sure I knew if there was cake. I am also indebted to Vangeline Campbell and Djuna Witherspoon for all their help navigating the v administrative side of the history department. Thanks to them both for always answering my questions and ensuring things ran smoothly. A fellowship at the Science History Institute allowed me the time, space, and support to focus on writing in my final year. I am thankful to the wonderful archivists and librarians there as well as Daniel Mitchell for coordinating an energetic and active scholarly community. Throughout the year, my incredibly smart and generous fellow- fellows offered feedback, guidance, advice, and support. This dissertation was also completed with support from the Hagley Museum and Library and the Center for Humanities at Temple. Thank you to my friends who gave love, support, and most importantly a sense of balance throughout this project. I’d especially like to acknowledge the close friendship of Marissa Christie and Reena Shanker. They really are the best friends anyone could ever ask for. And thank you to Marissa, Sean, and Baloo for opening their home to me in this past year. Their generosity is truly boundless. This project quite literally came out of a conversation I had with my brother, Andrew, one day as we walked through the local wildlife refuge. I am grateful for the excitement and love he has showed me throughout this project. And if it all falls apart, Andrew and I will always have soap making as a backup plan. Thanks immensely to my partner, Canela, for her encouragement, understanding, and patience throughout the past five years with an emphasis on patience. I am grateful for the many times she told me it was okay to take a break and the times she gave me tough-love to get me through a deadline. And I am grateful to her for knowing exactly which one I needed. She’s simply the best. vi Finally, this dissertation would have been impossible without the love and support of my parents, Paula and Peter Straub. They have given me acceptance, encouragement, and insight in every single thing I’ve ever wanted to do from soccer to school plays to getting my PHD. Throughout my life I was lucky to see such hard working, kind, and compassionate role models who shaped me into the person I am today. They gave me everything and asked for nothing in return, save I did what made me happy. This dissertation is dedicated to them. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: MAKING PURE WATER: AN INTRODUCTION ........................1 CHAPTER 2: DOMESTICATING WATER: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND LAUNDRY, 1840 -1919 ................................................26 CHAPTER 3: HAMMERS, CHISELS, AND HEMLOCK: SCIENTIFIC WATER CORRECTION ON AMERICAN RAIL LINES, 1860-1910 ................75 CHAPTER 4: BOILERS, BABIES, AND THE DOMESTICATION OF SODIUM METAPHOSPHATE .........................................................................112 CHAPTER 5: A CHOICE BETWEEN CLEAN WATER AND CLEAN LAUNDRY: THE ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF WATER SOFTENING .....151 EPILOGUE: WATER CONTROL AS A PATH TO PROFIT ...........................192