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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"). 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 .
Left to right: A sample of solid raw spermaceti, a spermaceti wax candle and a bottle of sperm oil. Spermaceti / s p ər m ə ˈ s iː t i ˌ-ˈ s ɛ-/ is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head
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.
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 ...
Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 that was active during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil which was commonly used in lamps.
Flensing at Whalers Bay, Deception Island Flensing is the removing of the blubber or outer integument of whales, separating it from the animal's meat.Processing the blubber (the subcutaneous fat) into whale oil was the key step that transformed a whale carcass into a stable, transportable commodity.
Also widely used were animal fats (butter, ghee, fish oil, shark liver, whale blubber, or seal). Camphine, made of purified spirits of turpentine, and burning fluid, a mixture of turpentine and alcohol, were sold as lamp fuels starting in the 1830s as the whale oil industry declined.
Also significant was a fall in the price of whale oil to just £18 in 1820–21 season, in response to weak demand caused by a rise in imports of seed oil. [40] More free trade legislation in 1844 saw the high duty on American-caught whale oil reduced from £27 18s 7d per tun to just £6 6s, and the duty on sperm oil fall to £15 15s. [41]