The stress Factor

Vessels are made more prone to disease by stresses which reduce the ability to cope with the toxic oxidants to cholesterol-filled cell release. The main stresses are rampant in diabetes and smoking. cigarette smoke is full of hydrocarbons, any number of which impair the natural defence mechanisms of toxins.

treatment of heart disease is thus aimed first at prevention. Stopping smoking is the most important factor. Good blood pressure control, and good diabetic control, losing weight and reducing cholesterol  all significantly reduce risk.

The Queen uses Pears Soap

(From BBC website)

 

The royal train has been opened to the public in an attempt to dispel its lavish image.

The carriages, housed in a rail works shed near Wolverton station, Buckinghamshire, will carry the Queen to every corner of Britain during her Golden Jubilee tour.

 

What will the queen be using on her travels around the country during her golden Jubilee because it is thought that the queens train carriage is very lavish. Director of royal travel Tim Hewlett said: "There is a perception the train is a bit like the Orient Express.  "But there are not many bathroom furnishings you could not get in Homebase or B&Q."

 

En-suite bathrooms have pink plastic baths and sinks with Pears soap in dishes, plain mahogany toilet seats and clear plastic shower curtains. The Queen herself uses Pears Soap.

 

A compartment used as an office by various private secretaries has a fax machine and telephone bearing the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's extension numbers.

 

A framed senior railcard in the name of the Duke of Edinburgh adorns a wall

Two battered red despatch boxes used for the Queen's correspondence lie on a desk, next to a plastic Union flag.

 

A 2002 copy of Who's Who is also at hand.

The sleeping and office accommodation has pastel carpets and check curtains.

And the Buckingham Palace staff dining car is laid out in the style of a first-class train carriage.

 

Most rooms contain bottles of Tesco's Perthshire mountain spring water.

The two locomotives, Prince William and Prince Henry, are used for other duties when the royal train is not being used.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1966614.stm

 

Andrew Pears

Andrew Pears was born around 1770. He is believed to have spent much of his early life on the family farm in St Ewe as he was the son of a farmer  before leaving for London at the age of about 18. At this time he had trained as a barber and he continued this trade in Soho from 1789. His customers were wealthy and he was soon making a good living in the capital.

His trade helped his to recognise a gap in the market – the need for a pure and gentle soap. Consequently Pears set about perfecting a way of refining the quality of soap, The resulting product was of very high quality and was unique in being transparent.

The fashion at that time was to maintain a pristine alabaster complexion as tanned faces were associated with those who laboured outdoors. He found that cosmetic products at that time contained arsenic and lead and caused damage to the skin, he began experimenting with soap purification and eventually produced a gentle soap made from glycerine and other natural product which was known as the original Pears soap.

 This gave it a novelty value and guaranteed immediate popularity. Pears Soap can still be identified by its unique image today.  The transparency was the unique product plus that established the image of Pears Soap. His method of mellowing and ageing each long lasting Pears Bar, for over two months, is still used today where natural oils and pure glycerine are combined with the delicate fragrance of rosemary, cedar and thyme.

Andrew Pears retired from business in 1838, leaving his grandson, Francis, to continue the business of the London-based firm of A & F Pears. The son in law of Francis was Thomas J Barratt, who is often referred to as the father of modern advertising. It was he who eventually saw the potential of Sir John Everett Millais’ painting ‘Bubbles’ as an ideal advertisement for Pears.

Pears Soap Manufacturing Process

The concave shape of the soap is formed by shrinkage while the soap is drying, and is not due to deliberate moulding. After washing, the concave area on the top of the soap is used to dissolve the last sliver of the previous bar of soap. Pears Soap is often used by the elderly for its skincare properties.

According to Pears Inc. USA, there is now only one manufacturing facility worldwide for Pears Soap and that is in India. The Indian producer now owns all rights to the soap, its formula, packaging, etc. Bars of soap produced in the factory come in two sizes: 75g and 125g.

1939- 1945

1939-1945

The Second World War , was a global war began on September 3rd 1939 and ended 15^th August 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human history.

the first commodity to be controlled was petrol, but food rationing was also introduced quite soon. On 8 January 1940, , butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned fruit. Strict rationing inevitably created a black market. This was illegal, and buyers could be tricked with cheaper substitutes such as horsemeat instead of beef.

Almost all controlled items were rationed by weight, but meat, exceptionally, was rationed by price.

Fats were rationed during the Second World War, and soap was no exception. In February 1942, because of shortages of fats, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, soap rationing began. It was introduced without warning to prevent panic buying and price rises.

1940s WW2 advert for Pears Soap short supply Peggy bathtime war advertising 1945

Pears soap was going through a shortage during war time. Even though soap was rationed and in short supply it did not stop Pears advertising.

1908-1923

Olympics 1908

Lonon held the Olympics in the summer of 1908. A rare programme from the 1908 London Olympics has been unearthed during a house clearance in Surrey. Jeffrey Avery made the discovery while sorting through rubbish at the property in West Clandon near Guildford.

He said the programme was among a large amount of Olympic memorabilia and photographs stretching from 1908 through to the 1960s.

The programme contained an advert for Pears' soap and Robinson's Barley Water

"Such items are very rare and as such they have been copied, but from the limited images that I can access on such programmes this does appear to be ok."

Mr Avery said the house belonged to a professional body builder and close friend of Johnny Weissmuller - who won a total of five Olympic gold medals in swimming at the 1924 and 1928 Games.

After his swimming career Weissmuller became a movie star and, cast as Tarzan the Ape Man, he starred in 12 films. He died in 1984.

Sporting exhibition

Realising the significance of the find he contacted the chairman of the Maidenhead Heritage Centre and offered to loan the programme for its exhibition Our Sporting Life.

Mr Avery, whose business is based in Mitcham, south-west London, said: "He was so excited and I thought this is the time I should be keeping these things and letting other people see them so I agreed to let him borrow it for the exhibition."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16395130

Halleys Comet

Public perception of the comet was that in 1910: that the world was going to end with the comet. The anticipation of its arrival creates quite a stir. In some circles, the comet’s unusually close approach is seen as a sign of impending doom, a notion the down-market press does little to dispel.

Company’s such as Bird’s Custard and Pears’ Soap featured the comet in their advertising: ‘Pears’ soap is visible day and night all over the world’ was one slogan. Even before the comet was visible to the naked eye, people wrote to the Royal Observatory to report their sightings, which turned out to be misidentifications of the bright planets Venus and Jupiter and in one case the Andromeda Galaxy. They used the hysteria to their advantage.

1914-1918

On 28th  June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot and killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb terrorist, while visiting Sarajevo. The mood in Austria was already hostile towards Serbia, and now it turned towards war. The Austrians were certain that the Serbian government had been in some way involved in the murder, and while it is not certain how far that was true, the leader of the terrorists was also head of Serbian Intelligence. On 23 July, Austria delivered a note to the Serbia government that, if agreed to, would have almost ended Serbian independence. This was clearly intended to be refused, and in the most it was.

 On 28 July 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia. Now the alliance system swung into play. On 30 July, Russia started mobilisation. In reaction, Germany declared war against Russia on 1 August. On the next day, Germany invaded Luxembourg, and demanded free passage across Belgium. On 3 August, Belgium refused the German demand, Germany declared war on France, and Britain pledged to support Belgium.

On 4 August a British ultimatum to Germany was refused, and Britain declared war on Germany, while Germany declared war on Belgium, and launched an invasion of Belgium. Finally, on 5 August Austria declared war on Russia, and the First World War had begun.

Pears  advertising has always moved with the times and cashed in on world events and the First World War was no different. Pears was able to use the nationalism and patriotism that comes from a war in order to sell more soap.

After the war there was a time of relative peace.

1923 during the Olympics

Punch Magazine was a humorous and satirical weekly magazine first published on July 17th 1841. Punch became a staple for British drawing rooms because of its sophisticated humour and absence of offensive material, especially when viewed against the satirical press of the time.

1899 Witch

 

This 1899 advertisement for Pears soap is an unsigned woodcut, which was photographically reproduced and printed, dozens at a time, on large sheets of paper, before being pasted onto card, cut down to individual images and distributed. Despite the mass production of these advertising cards, few examples survive. The same advertising image and caption was used in newspapers and in magazines.

And, in case it is not already obvious, the witch is writing “the Name of PEARS on the Sky” with her index finder. This is at a time when women were getting executed for the crime of being a witch. And if your neighbour or friend had an argument and accused you of being a witched you were taken away and killed.

This is a good example of Pears taking what is scaring the public and using it to their advantage. The witch trials killed across the Europe and North America was 35,000.