Why Did Ancient Romans Wash Their Clothes With Urine?

The whitest toga in ancient Rome had been soaked in stale human urine, collected from jars on street corners. Why? In this video we put the pieces together: greasy wool, the chemistry of a stale pot, the fullers of Pompeii, a city that harvested its own pee, and an emperor who taxed it. Then we follow that same molecule to a German lab in 1828 and the birth of modern organic chemistry. 00:00: The whitest toga in Rome 00:38: Piece 1: The greasy problem 01:55: Piece 2: The chemistry of a stale pot 02:58: Piece 3: The laundry of Rome 04:52: Piece 4: Harvesting a city 06:21: Piece 5: Money doesn't stink 07:48: The twist: from a street pot to a chemistry lab 09:19: What we still don't know 09:53: Your turn: would you wear it? Sources: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, books 28 and 35 (soap; fuller's earth). Suetonius, Life of Vespasian, 16 and 23 (finances; the urine tax and Titus). Cassius Dio, Roman History, 65.14. Martial, Epigrams 6.93; Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.16.15 (urine jars in the streets). Catullus, Poem 39. Apuleius, Metamorphoses 9.12 (sulfur and the wicker cage). Digest 19.2.13.6 (the fuller's liability). Pompeii: the fullonica of Stephanus (I 6, 2) and the fullonica of L. Veranius Hypsaeus (VI 8, 20-21). Wöhler, F. (1828). Über künstliche Bildung des Harnstoffs. Annalen der Physik und Chemie. #history #ancientrome #chemistry #science #romanempire #pompeii