Whale oil

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A bottle of whale oil Natural whale oil bottle.jpg
A bottle of whale oil

Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. [1] Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil, which comes from the Dutch word traan ("tear drop").

Contents

Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the head cavities of sperm whales, differs chemically from ordinary whale oil: it is composed mostly of liquid wax. Its properties and applications differ from those of regular whale oil, and it was sold for a higher price.

Source and use

Emerging industrial societies used whale oil in oil lamps and to make soap. In the 20th century it was made into margarine. With the commercial development of the petroleum industry and vegetable oils, the use of whale oils declined considerably from its peak in the 19th century into the 20th century. This is said to have saved whales from extinction. [2] In the 21st century, with most countries having banned whaling, the sale and use of whale oil has practically ceased.

Whale oil was obtained by boiling strips of blubber harvested from whales. [3] The removal is known as flensing and the boiling process was called trying out . The boiling was carried out on land in the case of whales caught close to shore or beached. On longer deep-sea whaling expeditions, the trying-out was done aboard the ship in a furnace known as a trywork and the carcass was then discarded into the water.

Baleen whales were a major source of whale oil. Their oil is exclusively composed of triglycerides, whereas that of toothed whales contains wax esters. [4] The bowhead whale and right whale were considered the ideal whaling targets. They are slow and docile, and they float when killed. They yield plenty of high-quality oil and baleen, [5] and as a result, they were hunted nearly to extinction.

Chemistry

Whalers boiling blubber on the deck of their ship (1874 illustration) Boiling blubber on a whaling ship.jpg
Whalers boiling blubber on the deck of their ship (1874 illustration)

Whale oil has low viscosity (lower than olive oil), [6] is clear, and varies in color from a bright honey yellow to a dark brown, according to the condition of the blubber from which it has been extracted and the refinement through which it went. [7] It has a strong fishy odor. When hydrogenated, it turns solid and white and its taste and odor change. [8] [9] Its composition varies with the species from which it was sourced and the method by which it was harvested and processed. It is composed mainly of triglycerides [10] (molecules of fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule). Oil sourced from toothed whales, especially the oil of sperm whales, contains a substantial amount of wax esters. [4] Most of the fatty acids are unsaturated. The most common fatty acids are oleic acid and its isomers (18:1 carbon chains). [11] Whale oil is exceptionally stable. [12]

Physical properties of whale oils
Specific gravity 0.920 to 0.931 at 15.6 °C (60.1 °F) [13]
Flash point 230 °C (446 °F) [14]
Saponification value 185–202 [10]
Unsaponifiable matter0–2% [10]
Refractive index 1.4760 at 15 °C (59 °F) [15]
Iodine value (Wijs) 110–135 [10]
Viscosity 35–39.6 cSt at 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) [6]

Applications

United States whale oil and sperm oil imports in the 19th century US Whale Oil and Sperm Oil Imports (1805-1905).jpg
United States whale oil and sperm oil imports in the 19th century
Try pots in Ilulissat, Greenland FourHuileBaleineTrankessel.JPG
Try pots in Ilulissat, Greenland

The main use of whale oil was for illumination and machine lubrication. [16] Cheaper alternatives to whale oil existed, but were inferior in performance and cleanliness of burn. As a result, whale oil dominated the world for both uses. This in turn further fueled the Industrial Revolution, in the United States, in Britain, and continental Europe. As demand for whale oil increased at the end of the 18th century, the whaling industry expanded until its peak around the 1820s, when piped coal-gas networks began to provide an alternative lighting fuel in urban areas. Due to dwindling whale populations causing higher voyage costs, as well as taxation, the market changed rapidly in the 1860s after the discovery of mineral oils and expansion of chemical refineries to produce kerosene and lubricants. By 1870, kerosene became the dominant illumination fuel and the whaling industry was in decline. [17]

The use of whale oil had a steady decline starting in the late 19th century due to the development of superior alternatives, and later, the passing of environmental laws. [1] In 1986, the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on commercial whaling, which has all but eliminated the use of whale oil today. Aboriginal whaling, part of the subsistence economy, is still permitted. Groups such as the Inuit of North America are granted special whaling rights, integral to their culture, and they still use whale oil as a food and as lamp oil in the ceremonial qulliq . [18] [19]

Whale oil was used as a cheap illuminant, though it gave off a strong odor when burnt and was not very popular. [20] It was replaced in the late 19th century by cheaper, more efficient, and longer-lasting kerosene. [21] Burning fluid and camphine were the dominant replacements for whale oil until the arrival of kerosene. [22]

In the United States, whale oil was used in cars as a constituent of automatic transmission fluid until it was banned by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. [23] It was also a major component of hydraulic fluid in tractors (like the ubiquitous JDM Type 303 Special Hydraulic Fluid) until its withdrawal in 1974. [24]

In the United Kingdom, whale oil was used in toolmaking machinery as a high-quality lubricant. [25]

After the invention of hydrogenation in the early 20th century, whale oil was used to make margarine, [8] a practice that has since been discontinued. Whale oil in margarine has been replaced by vegetable oil. [26]

Whale oil was used to make soap. Until the invention of hydrogenation, it was used only in industrial-grade cleansers, because its foul smell and tendency to discolor made it unsuitable for cosmetic soap. [9]

Whale oil was widely used in the First World War as a preventive measure against trench foot. An infantry battalion of the British Army during World War I on the Western Front could be expected to use 10 imp gal (45 L; 12 US gal) of whale oil a day. The oil was rubbed directly onto bare feet in order to protect them from the effects of immersion. [27]

Literature

The pursuit and use of whale oil, along with many other aspects of whaling, are discussed in Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick . The novel's narrator is sometimes misquoted as saying that whale oil is "as rare as the milk of queens". [28] [29] The quote is:

In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens.

—  Herman Melville, Moby-Dick [30]

According to the rest of the paragraph, sailors onboard the merchantman had to sleep, dress, and maneuver below decks in the dark as opposed to the whalers who used the oil for light. [30]

John R. Jewitt, an Englishman who wrote a memoir about his years as a captive of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), an Indigenous Pacific Northwest people on the British Columbia Coast, from 1802 to 1805, claimed whale oil was a condiment with every dish, even strawberries.[ citation needed ]

In Robert Browning's Pied Piper (§ VII), the Piper's piping leads the rats to imagine the sound of "breaking the hoops of train-oil flasks".

Friedrich Ratzel in The History of Mankind (1896), when discussing food materials in Oceania, quoted Captain James Cook's comment in relation to the Māori people: "No Greenlander was ever so sharp set upon train-oil as our friends here, they greedily swallowed the stinking droppings when we were boiling down the fat of dog-fish." [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wax</span> Class of organic compounds which are malleable at room temperature

Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low viscosity liquids. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in nonpolar organic solvents such as hexane, benzene and chloroform. Natural waxes of different types are produced by plants and animals and occur in petroleum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blubber</span> Thick layer of animal body fat

Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized adipose tissue under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins, and sirenians. It was present in many marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cutting fluid</span> Coolants and lubricants used in metalworking

Cutting fluid is a type of coolant and lubricant designed specifically for metalworking processes, such as machining and stamping. There are various kinds of cutting fluids, which include oils, oil-water emulsions, pastes, gels, aerosols (mists), and air or other gases. Cutting fluids are made from petroleum distillates, animal fats, plant oils, water and air, or other raw ingredients. Depending on context and on which type of cutting fluid is being considered, it may be referred to as cutting fluid, cutting oil, cutting compound, coolant, or lubricant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spermaceti</span> Waxy substance found in the head cavities of sperm whales

Spermaceti is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale. Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head. This organ may contain as much as 1,900 litres (500 US gal) of spermaceti. It has been extracted by whalers since the 17th century for human use in cosmetics, textiles, and candles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melon (cetacean)</span> Mass of fat found in all toothed whales

The melon is a mass of adipose tissue found in the foreheads of all toothed whales. It focuses and modulates the animal's vocalizations and acts as a sound lens. It is thus a key organ involved in communication and echolocation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of whaling</span> History of whale hunting and the trade of whale-derived commodities

This article discusses the history of whaling from prehistoric times up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Whaling has been an important subsistence and economic activity in multiple regions throughout human history. Commercial whaling dramatically reduced in importance during the 19th century due to the development of alternatives to whale oil for lighting, and the collapse in whale populations. Nevertheless, some nations continue to hunt whales even today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trywork</span> Furnace for rendering blubber into whale oil

A trywork, located aft of the fore-mast, is the most distinguishing feature of a whaling ship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrimshaw</span> Engravings and carvings done in bone or ivory, created by sailors

Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petroleum product</span> Products ultimately derived from crude oil

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coal oil</span> Oil derived from coal

Coal oil is a shale oil obtained from the destructive distillation of cannel coal, mineral wax, or bituminous shale, once used widely for illumination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jojoba oil</span> Oil extracted from jojoba seeds

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sperm oil</span> Waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales

Sperm oil is a waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales. It is a clear, yellowish liquid with a very faint odor. Sperm oil has a different composition from common whale oil, obtained from rendered blubber. Although it is traditionally called an "oil", it is technically a liquid wax. It is composed of wax esters with a small proportion of triglycerides, an ester of an unsaturated fatty acid, and a branched-chain fatty alcohol. It is a natural antioxidant and heat-transfer agent. In the late-18th and early-19th centuries, sperm oil was prized as an illuminant for its bright, odorless flame and as a lubricant for its low viscosity and stability. It was supplanted in the late 19th century by less expensive alternatives such as kerosene and petroleum-based lubricants. With the 1987 international ban on whaling, sperm oil is no longer legally sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Try pot</span> Large pot used to remove and render animal oil

A try pot is a large pot used to remove and render the oil from blubber obtained from cetaceans and pinnipeds (seals), and also to extract oil from penguins. Once a suitable animal such as a whale had been caught and killed, the blubber was stripped from the carcass in a process known as flensing, cut into pieces, and melted in the try pots to extract the oil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whaling in the United States</span> Industry

Commercial whaling in the United States dates to the 17th century in New England. The industry peaked in 1846–1852, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent out its last whaler, the John R. Mantra, in 1927. The Whaling industry was engaged with the production of three different raw materials: whale oil, spermaceti oil, and whalebone. Whale oil was the result of "trying-out" whale blubber by heating in water. It was a primary lubricant for machinery, whose expansion through the Industrial Revolution depended upon before the development of petroleum-based lubricants in the second half of the 19th century. Once the prized blubber and spermaceti had been extracted from the whale, the remaining majority of the carcass was discarded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qulliq</span> Traditional oil lamp used by Arctic peoples

The qulliq, is the traditional oil lamp used by Arctic peoples, including the Inuit, the Chukchi and the Yupik peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sperm whaling</span> Human hunting of sperm whales

Sperm whaling is the human practice of hunting sperm whales, the largest toothed whale and the deepest-diving marine mammal species, for the oil, meat and bone that can be extracted from the cetaceans' bodies.

References

  1. 1 2 Ed Butts (October 4, 2019). "The cautionary tale of whale oil". The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019. Then in 1846, a Nova Scotian physician and geologist named Abraham Gesner invented kerosene. This pioneering form of fossil fuel, which some called coal oil, burned cleaner and brighter than whale oil, and didn't have a pungent odour.
  2. ↑ Column: Markets and consumers, not president, control oil's future
  3. ↑ Barfield, Rodney (1995). Seasoned by Salt. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 64. ISBN   0-8078-2231-0.
  4. 1 2 Rice, Dale W. (2009). "Spermaceti". Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Second ed.). pp. 1098–1099. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-373553-9.00250-9. ISBN   9780123735539.
  5. ↑ Clapham, Phil (2004). Right Whales: Natural History & Conservation. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press. p.  8. ISBN   0-89658-657-X.
  6. 1 2 "Liquids – Kinematic Viscosities". www.engineeringtoolbox.com.
  7. ↑ Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Whale-oil". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 573–574.
  8. 1 2 Tønnessen, Johan Nicolay; Johnsen, Arne Odd (January 1, 1982). The History of Modern Whaling. University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-03973-5.
  9. 1 2 Webb, Robert Lloyd (November 1, 2011). "5. Warring On Whales". On the Northwest: Commercial Whaling in the Pacific Northwest, 1790-1967. University of British Columbia Press. p. 144. ISBN   9780774843157.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Chakrabarty, Moninder Mohan (November 9, 2003). Chemistry And Technology Of Oils And Fats. Allied Publishers. p. 183. ISBN   9788177644951.
  11. ↑ Bottino, Nestor R. (1971). "The composition of marine-oil triglycerides as determined by silver ion-thin-layer chromatography". Journal of Lipid Research. 12 (1): 24–30. doi: 10.1016/S0022-2275(20)39542-0 . PMID   5542701.
  12. ↑ "Reinventing the Whale" (PDF). WDCS: Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 1, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  13. ↑ Dieterichs, Emil F. (1916). "Whale and Train Oils". A practical treatise on friction, lubrication, fats and oils, including the manufacture of lubricating oils, leather oils, paint oils, solid lubricants and greases, modes of testing oils, and the application of lubricants. Henry Carey Baird. p. 23.
  14. ↑ Sims, Frank (1999). Engineering Formulas Interactive: Conversions, Definitions, and Tables. Industrial Press. p. 132. ISBN   9780831130879.
  15. ↑ Kanthack, R. (1918–1921). "Refractive Indices of Oils, Fats and Waxes". In Goldsmith, John Naish (ed.). Tables of refractive indices. Vol. II. A. Hilger, limited. p. 259.
  16. ↑ "Whale Oil". www.petroleumhistory.org. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Understanding the Whale Oil Myth and the Rise of Petroleum". Petroleum Service Company. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  18. ↑ "The Bowhead Whale – An Inuit Tradition" . Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Inuit and Marine Mammals" . Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  20. ↑ Heflin, Wilson (April 12, 2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Vanderbilt University Press. p. 232. ISBN   9780826591449.
  21. ↑ "Thefreemanonline.org". www.thefreemanonline.org. January 5, 2020.
  22. ↑ "The "Whale Oil Myth"". PBS NewsHour. August 20, 2008.
  23. ↑ Information, Reed Business (May 1, 1975). "New Scientist". Reed Business Information – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  24. ↑ "The Yellow Bucket", Thomas Glenn, Lubes N' Greases, LND Publishing Co., Inc., February 2012, Vol. 18, No. 2, p.12.
  25. ↑ Norman Atkinson, Sir Joseph Whitworth (Sutton Publishing 1996), p161.
  26. ↑ Gorman, Martyn (2002). "Whale oil and margarine". Scran. Historic Environment Scotland. Archived from the original on February 20, 2020.
  27. ↑ "Trench Foot". spartacus-educational.com.
  28. ↑ "The harsh history behind the internet's favorite sea shanty". Mashable . January 20, 2021. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  29. ↑ "The spoils of oils". September 15, 2017. Archived from the original on September 27, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  30. 1 2 Melville, Herman (1851). "Chapter 97. The Lamp.". Moby-Dick.
  31. ↑ Friedrich, Ratzel. "The Races of Oceania – Labour, Dwellings and Food in Oceania – Similarities and coincidences in labour and implements of labour, Food". inquirewithin.biz. Archived from the original on April 30, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2018.

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