I take something, often an object I have, which I like. Then I invent stories around them. I'm doing that today and the picture featured here is just so apt. This is an example of how I work... exhaustive. But wonderful I'd like to think :-) Read on...
Once upon a time, in my lifetime far, far away, I bought an old Singer sewing machine because. I loved the cast-iron stand, especially. That cast iron stand is in the garden, twenty years later and still waiting for the day when it will be made into a table.
The Singer sewing machine, anno world war 1, has long since been trashed. Stupid thing to do. It was a beautiful object and I bitterly regret I did so. The wisdom of years.
What I am left with is this box, used to contain all the threads and needles in a little drawer at the base of the machine. The box I am using in my books... all because of an old Singer in a dingy basement someone wanted to get rid of.
The story this little box has generated is wonderful. Because it reinvents something lost to us. Icilma was the name of the water coming from the spring he hit upon in Algeria, when Englishman Stephen Armitage drilled for petroleum in Algeria in 1898 using a rig imported from Canada.
162 ALGERIA AND TUNISIA.
HAMMAM SELAMA.
(Near Oran.)
Two hours by train from Oran on the Oran-Arzeu-Sa’ida Railway, and at 21/2 miles from the station of Port - aux - Poules (55 kilom.), much frequented in summer, are the baths of Selama, overlooking the Mediterranean. The " spring " was discovered when boring for petroleum at a depth of 900 feet, and the pressure at the mouth of the well is equal to 80 s.p. on the steam gauge. The water is highly mineralised, warm, and beautifully clear ; the carbonic acid gas mixed with it causes it to rise in a sparkling jet of 12 to 40 feet above the ground.
The water has been proved to be very beneficial for gout, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, throat, kidney, stomach, and intestine troubles. Attached to the baths is a small hotel, vey comfortable, and quiet. Pension terms, 10 f. a day, and no extras.
Rough shooting, including wild duck, snipe, hares, and partridges, is obtainable in the district, and sea fishing from the rocks and boats is within easy reach. A variety of drives and picnics may be enjoyed by visitors.
Taken internally, the water is slightly laxative, and an excellent diuretic.
Hammam Selama can be reached in less than four days from London, via Paris and Marseilles, thence steamer, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, to Oran ; or from Paris, via Madrid and Carthagena, thence steamer (nine hours) to Oran.
(For fares and dates of sailings, which are subject to alteration, consult time tables.)
The place was named the Hammam Selama, close to the shore of the Mediteranean, to the small ex-Roman town of Portus Paulus, then named Portes-aux-Poules.
From the Geological Survey, professional paper, vols 494-494
From the Geological Survey, professional paper, vols 494-494
Many noted thermal springs in Algeria. Several were developed as bathing places during Roman times, and they are still well-patronized resorts. According to Hanriot (ref. 2455), there are 77 groups of mineral sprngs in Algeria; of these, 64 are classed as thermal.
There are several groups of thermal springs in the mountainous belt that crosses northern Tunisia. The most accessible of these springs were developed in ancient times as bathing resorts and have been in nearly continual use down to the present. Another region of thermal springs is in south-central part of Tunisia, where numerous springs, both thermal and of noral especially by Shat-el-Jerid.
The spring at Hammam Selama is shown in the map above, nr. 12. Just south of Portes-aux-Poules. I have tried finding it on Google Maps without success. It seems nothing is left. The rest is part of my fictive world, recreating in my imagination a Hammam more exuberent, yet capturing the spirit of another age.
Stephen Armitage
In 1894 the news had spread that an Englishman, named Stephen Armitage an oil prospector , had obtained an exploration license in the swamps of Macta. He worked on behalf of a British company and had used a powerful Canadian probe to drill Hammam Selama, five miles south of Port-aux-Poules, at lakeside Mouila. Here, bubbling water had attracted his attention. They were dying earth by blisters and hot bubbles that smelled of sulfur. He discovered that historically, the people of Douar Hassasna came to heal their wounds and boils.
Stephen Armitage drilled 240 meters deep, and a powerful jet of 25 meters had sprung at 38 °hot. The reputation of the water steam at Selama we said to be miraculous - a word that spread quickly West to Oran. It was claimed it cured skin conditions, inflammation of want it relieved those suffering from rheumatism. Patients flocked from all the villages, venomous insect bites, abrasions that do not healed, for dental decay. The wounded thought that thanks to the reducing power of sulfur, the waters would even accelerate the healing of dislocations or their fractures.
A shrewd businessman, Stephen Armitage at once considered running a spa. He constructed wooden buildings, channelled water. In 1896 he installed bathtubs. He planned to build a hotel. All are encouraged affluence due to the presence of other spas in the area at Hammam Bou Bou Hajar and Hanifia. His efforts were rewarded with recalibration of the railway to Mostaganem, improving comfort and the easier movement of travelers: Tourism was born at Porte-aux-Poules because of the spring Stephen Armitage had discovered at Selema, the water of which he named Icilma.
Icilma
Icilma the name went on to be developed into a whole cosmetics industry across the world, soaps, creams, powder shampoo even, until it faded from existence.
He founded the Icilma Company Ltd in 1898 and based its original lotions, soaps and creams around the inclusion of the mineral water from the springs. As early as 1907 he began selling what we would recognise as dry shampoo, but which he marketed as ‘hair powder’.
He built the Icilma brand through careful marketing. Starting with British doctors selling the idea to nurses. See the extracts below from the Nursing Record.
The Nursing Record and Hospital World March 9, 1901:
We have pleasure in directing attention to the Icilma Preparations, which being prepared from an oxygenised natural water are both safe, and delicious adjuncts of the toilet table. Icilma treats bruises, mosquito and gnat bites, nettlerash, and all irritations to the skin. It is sold in shilling bottles, or, daintily scented, at 2s. It has stood the test of examination at Somerset house, and, as a natural mineral water is exempt from the Patent Medicine Stamp. Icilma Soap is made with this water, and we find it delicious in use.
Nurses should acquaint themselves with this valuable water, as the toilet accessories prepared with it never clog the pores of the skin, but by softening it help help to preserve the natural bloom, it’s cleansing properties dissolve impurities, and give transparency, while it is astringent and antiseptic. Icilma can be obtained from all chemists.
One of the minor evils in life, but a very real one is irritation to the skin. To this statement we feel sure that all nurses who reside in the tropics or suffer or who suffered from prickly heat will readily subscribe. If we desire, therefore, to direct the attention of our readers to the properties of Icilma water, a natural African Spring water, which displays remarkable tonic and cleansing properties, and which has the advantage of being non-poisonous. (Blended with beautifying water from the Hammam Selama in Algeria). Not far from Tunis close to the meditteranean coast.
Coordinates
Point of sale and advertising materials from the 1930s show that Icilma hair powder was sold in sachets, but was otherwise used in a similar way to today’s products – the powder was sprayed on, left for a few minutes, and then brushed out with a stiff brush.
Dry shampoo recently hit the Inside Unilever News Centre as nine Unilever brands are preparing to launch their version of the product by the end of 2012.
Dry shampoos work by spraying an ultra-fine powder onto the roots of the hair, which absorbs excess oil and can be brushed out to leave hair refreshed between washes. As the News Centre reported, this is also good news for the environment because it dramatically reduces the amount of water that individuals use. The products therefore appeal to today’s consumers who have busy lifestyles and are sustainability conscious. A cataloguing project taking place in the Archives has found that one Unilever brand was decades ahead of its time.
The quirky cartoon press advertisements show the many benefits that dry shampoo had for 1930s women – it was quick, convenient, saved women having their permanent waves re-set, and allowed them to accept last minute invitations without needing to be concerned about their appearance.
Icilma was bought by Lever Brothers in 1922 and was one of the companies that were subject to rationalisation, as several toiletry manufacturers were owned by Lever Brothers. In 1939 Icilma’s sales team was merged with that of A and F Pears; then in 1953, after the withdrawal of the cosmetics lines, was transferred to Pepsodent. Sadly, declining sales of Icilma shampoo, vanishing cream and tinted foundation cream meant that the business was gradually wound down in the 1950s and in 1966 the Icilma line was discontinued.
As the following advertisements from the 40's show, Icilma had become a household name:
