Sperm Whale Oil

[Bigcypresshunter]

Anyone see a sperm whale sewing machine oil bottle like this? When did the US stop the whaling industry?

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

Nice bottle....found this information ...hope it helps.......Prior to the 1800s, light was provided by torches, candles made from tallow, and lamps which burned oils rendered from animal fat. Because it burned with less odor and smoke than most fuels, whale oil, particularly oil from the nose of the sperm whale, became popular for lamp oils and candles. However, sperm oil, widely known as "spermaceti", was very expensive. In fact, a gallon in the early 1800s cost about $2.00, which in modern values equates to about $200 a gallon. Nonetheless, whale oil was the illuminant of choice for those rich enough to afford it.

A thriving whaling industry developed to provide sperm oil for lighting, and regular whale oil as a lubricant for the machine parts of trains. In the United States alone, the whaling fleet swelled from 392 ships in 1833 to 735 by 1846. At the height of the industry in 1856, sperm oil sold for $1.77 a gallon, and the United States was producing 4 to 5 million gallons of spermaceti and 6 to 10 million gallons of train oil annually.

The demand for whale oil took a tremendous toll on whales, and some species were driven to the very brink of extinction. The right whale, one of the scarcer varieties, was killed in the early 1800s at a rate of about 15,000 per year. When the growing scarcity of this whale forced attention to other species, only about 50,000 right whales remained. Had demand for whale oil continued, extinction would have undoubtedly claimed several species.

When a clean-burning kerosene lamp invented by Michael Dietz appeared on the market in 1857, its effect on the whaling industry was immediate. Kerosene, known in those days at "Coal Oil", was easy to produce, cheap, smelled better than animal-based fuels when burned, and did not spoil on the shelf as whale oil did. The public abandoned whale oil lamps almost overnight. By 1860, at least 30 kerosene plants were in production in the United States, and whale oil was ultimately driven off the market

 

[SomeGuy]

Sperm oil was still used as a high quality lubricant well into the 20th century. I knew a former marine who humped a machine gun through the Korean War. He told me that in the extreme cold, the petroleum lubricant used by the Americans would gel and jam the weapons, but the Chinese were still using sperm oil, and didn't have this problem.

 

[BobG]

There was a sperm whale oil processing plant in Cleveland Ohio as late as 1968, on the banks of the Cuyahoga river, near the where it emptied into Lake Erie. It closed down shortly afterward.

The Cuyahoga river caught fire and warped a railroad bridge due to the industrial pollution.

As a truck driver at that time, it was the worst smelling place I ever had to go. Smelled like nothing I could compare it to.

 

[EDDE]

if you can get your hands on some whale oil it is wotrh a pretty penny....

 

[Cannonman17]

Lots of great history on the whaling industry but is this bottle worth anything? I have the exact same one.

 

[PBK]

A similar bottle with a paper label reading, "ACME FOR SEWING MACHINES AND ALL FINE MACHINERY PUT UP BY WM. W. MASON LIMERICK, ME." intact, with cork and contents, brought $43.67 on eBay a few days ago. The seller atributes it as c. 1890's:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sperm-Sewing-Machine-Oil-LABEL-Limerick-Maine_W0QQitemZ230007346150

However, according to bottles expert "Digger" O'Dell:
"The style of the bottle clear, with the dropped ring on the neck and the four indented panels was a generic 'Oil Bottle.' I am pretty sure that the company listed on this label, G. G. Norris & Sons (who began in Detroit as soda manufacturers) were not in the whaling business. The bottle...below with the badly deteriorated label shows a picture of a sperm whale and possible was for Joy's Sperm Oil. The company listed is Colby & Hutchins, NY. I am guessing here, but I suspect that the oil was processed and distributed to many entrepreneurs who put it up under their own labels. typically such a bottle would cost twenty-five to fifty cent a bottle."

Source: http://www.bottlebooks.com/questions/July 2000/july_2000_questions.htm

 

[EDDE]

ill add that sperm whale oil does not freeze in extreme cold -0 temps like petro oil(gets gummy and slows the action down on a rifle pistols etc) id like to get a small amount just to have for some keep sake knifes and a gun or 2 i own...

 

[coinshooter]

What I want to know is how they got that from the whale??

 

[bottles123]

Dug a pretty old one of those once, to date it's the only bottle I've broke while cleaning

 

[epackage]

if you can get your hands on some whale oil it is wotrh a pretty penny....

Are you confusing the whale oil with ambergris??

 

[Molewacker]

Ambergris comes from the digestive system - Head for fine oil

Each whale's head held up to a ton, in a cavity called the "case". It was part of a waxy liquid called spermaceti, from which the whale got its common name. The liquid was removed from the spermaceti organ at sea, and stored separately from the rendered whale oil for processing back in port. On return home, this headmatter, which was worth around 20% more than the oil from the blubber, was divided into two valuable commodities. One was a very pure type of sperm whale oil that required little or no additional processing. It was found particularly suitable as a lubricant for fine machinery, such as pocket watches

 

[Madmox]

To this day, I’ve heard that NASA still uses Spermaceti as a lubricant because it doesn’t go sideways in the the vacuum of space. NOS spermaceti. Haha. Allegedly not currently harvested but old stores.

 

[islamoradamark]

Long ago someone said in the old corvette differentials used whale oil

 

[Madmox]

Long ago someone said in the old corvette differentials used whale oil

That wasn’t uncommon at all up until 1974 when it was added to CITIES. GM was all about it. In fact. Before that they had approximately 1 million transmission failures a year. After that it skyrocketed to 8 million. That’s how good a lubricant it is. My family had a Hudson dealership in the 50s and they had a wet clutch. My cousins swore the “Hudsonite” clutch fluid was just sperm oil. Lots of the old high quality oils, think clock and sewing machine oil is sperm oil.

 

[Madmox]

Jojoba oil is VERY similar, with its characteristics. May even be better in regards to holding up as it gets hot.