The term
bubble bath can be used to describe
aeratedAeration is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or substance.-Methods of aeration of liquids:Aeration of liquids is achieved by:...
or carbonated baths, or to describe bathing with a layer of
surfactantSurfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids.- Etymology :The term surfactant is a blend of surface active agent...
foam on the surface of the water and consequently also the surfactant product used to produce the foam.
Bubbles in the water can be produced either by aerating it mechanically (in some cases using jets that also move the water) using equipment installed permanently or temporarily in a bathtub,
hot tubA hot tub is a large home-made or manufactured tub or small pool full of heated water and used for soaking, relaxation, massage, or hydrotherapy. In most cases, they have jets for massage purposes...
, or pool, or by producing gas in the water in a bathtub through the use of effervescent solids.
The term
bubble bath can be used to describe
aeratedAeration is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or substance.-Methods of aeration of liquids:Aeration of liquids is achieved by:...
or carbonated baths, or to describe bathing with a layer of
surfactantSurfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids.- Etymology :The term surfactant is a blend of surface active agent...
foam on the surface of the water and consequently also the surfactant product used to produce the foam.
Aerated and carbonated baths -- bubbles in water
Bubbles in the water can be produced either by aerating it mechanically (in some cases using jets that also move the water) using equipment installed permanently or temporarily in a bathtub,
hot tubA hot tub is a large home-made or manufactured tub or small pool full of heated water and used for soaking, relaxation, massage, or hydrotherapy. In most cases, they have jets for massage purposes...
, or pool, or by producing gas in the water in a bathtub through the use of effervescent solids. The latter can come as small pellets known as bath fizzies or as a bolus known as a
bath bombA bath bomb, one form of bath fizzie, is a bolus which, when placed in bath water, dissolves partly or completely and effervesces, also in some cases adding scent, color, and/or other properties or materials to the water....
, and they produce carbon dioxide by reaction of a bicarbonate or carbonate with an organic acid.
Bath fizzies are infeasible as liquids because of the inability to keep the mixture from reacting prematurely. This is a distinction from foam bath (see below) preparations, which may be supplied as liquids or solids.
When the term "bubble bath" is encountered on the Internet referring to a gas-infused bath or pool, it is more often by a non-native user of English who may not be aware of its use to refer to foam baths (see below). In other languages the distinction is more likely to be kept by use of different words.
Foam baths -- bubbles on top of water
Bubbles on top of the water, less ambiguously known as a
foam bath (see photo), can be obtained by adding a product containing foaming surfactants to water and temporarily aerating it by agitation (often merely by the fall of water from a faucet). The practice is popular for personal bathing because the foam
insulatesThe term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer....
the bath water, keeping it warm for longer, and (as a lime soap dispersant) prevents or reduces deposits on the bath tub at and below the water level (called "bathtub ring" and soap scum, respectively) produced by
soapSoap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning, which historically comes either in solid bars or in the form of a viscous liquid....
and
hard waterHard water is water that has high mineral content . Hard water minerals primarily consist of calcium , and magnesium metal cations, and sometimes other dissolved compounds such as bicarbonates and sulfates...
. It can hide the body of the bather, preserving
modestyStandards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged...
or, in theatre and film, giving the appearance that a performer who is actually clothed is bathing normally. Children find foam baths particularly amusing, so they are an inducement to get them into the bathtub.
Surfactant preparations for this purpose are themselves called "bath foam", "foaming bath", or "bubble bath", and frequently contain ingredients for additional purposes common to bath enhancers. Used at much higher concentration (for instance on a washcloth), such preparations (especially in liquid format) may also be used to wash skin or hair, so they are sometimes marketed for combined purposes; in a few cases, mild household detergents for hand washing of articles have also been labeled for such purposes, or for preventing soap scum on the bathtub (with or without foaming).
Effervescent bath products came into use as effervescent
bath saltsThe term bath salts refers to a range of water-soluble, usually inorganic solid products designed to be added to a bath, either to improve cleaning, provide a medical improvement, improve the experience of bathing, or serve as a vehicle for cosmetic agents....
early in the 20th century; the
bath bombA bath bomb, one form of bath fizzie, is a bolus which, when placed in bath water, dissolves partly or completely and effervesces, also in some cases adding scent, color, and/or other properties or materials to the water....
became a popular form late in that century. The earliest foam baths were foamed with
soapSoap is an anionic surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning, which historically comes either in solid bars or in the form of a viscous liquid....
, which practice came about shortly after soap flakes were marketed. Saponins were also used to foam machine-aerated baths. Foam baths became more popular with later surfactants; an early publicized use of an alkyl sulfate surfactant as bath foam was in the original 1936 production of the play
The Women, but it is possible that a similar composition was used to produce foams seen in bath photos since the marketing of
DreftDreft is a popular laundry detergent in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other markets. First produced by Procter & Gamble in 1933, it was the first synthetic detergent in the United States, originally intended for laundry use...
in 1933. Foam baths became standard practice for bathing children after the mass marketing of products so positioned in supermarkets during the 1960s and thereabouts, Bub
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/browse_thread/thread/2ccffd38fa9c105b/659fe9f97452bd70?lnk=st&q=#659fe9f97452bd70in the United States and Matey in the United Kingdom having been marketed shortly before 1960; the dubious claim had been made that their normal use (diluted in a tubful of water) would substitute for soap and/or rubbing to clean skin.
Machine-aerated baths originated in the early 20th century for therapeutic use, becoming more widely used with the introduction of the
jacuzziJacuzzi is a company that produces whirlpool bathtubs and spas. Its first product was a bath with massaging jets. The trademarked Jacuzzi name is commonly used to refer to any bath with water jets, and can thus be considered a genericized trademark...
. Trends merged when the
hot tubA hot tub is a large home-made or manufactured tub or small pool full of heated water and used for soaking, relaxation, massage, or hydrotherapy. In most cases, they have jets for massage purposes...
, which originally had still water, with its increasing popularity became more commonly a communal whirlpool bath. By the late 20th century jetted bathtubs had become popular for home installation.
It is possible to produce baths with bubbles simultaneously in and on top of the water (as in a poured beer), but the combination has not been popular. Mechanical aeration of a foam bath may produce much more foam than is sought -- the Internet is replete with first hand accounts and sometimes photographs of such experiences -- and many mechanically aerated baths are hot tubs which are shared and not drained between uses and so are desired to be kept free of non-maintenance materials. Mechanically aerated baths for tissue debridement of burn victims typically have added anti-foaming agents to counteract the film-forming properties that some medicinal additives have as a side effect, but the anti-foam is sometimes omitted or reduced for children to give them more of a pleasant distraction during debridement. Bath fizzies that also foam tend to produce disappointingly little foam when allowed to do so from their own fizz, and aeration of the water loses the gas from the fizz.