Whale oil

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Whale oil

Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber

Blubber

Blubber is a thick layer of Blood vessel fat found under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians....
of various species of whale

Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
s, particularly the three species of Right Whale

Right whale

Right whales are the species of large baleen whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Three right whale species are recognized in this genus....
(Eubalaena japonica
North Pacific Right Whale

The North Pacific Right Whale is a very large, robust baleen whale species that was common in the North Pacific until 1840, but now extremely rare due to 19th and 20th century whaling....
, E. glacialis
North Atlantic Right Whale

The North Atlantic Right Whale is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, which was formerly classified as a single species....
, and E. australis
Southern Right Whale

The Southern Right Whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Around 12,000 Southern Right Whales are spread throughout the southern part of the Southern Hemisphere....
) and the Bowhead Whale

Bowhead Whale

The Bowhead Whale , also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale, is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 meters in length....
(Balaena mysicetus) prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale. Train oil (see explanation below) proper is Right Whale oil, but this term has been applied to all blubber oils, and in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, to all marine animal oils: fish oils, liver oils, and blubber oils.

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Encyclopedia

Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber

Blubber

Blubber is a thick layer of Blood vessel fat found under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians....
of various species of whale

Whale

Right whale

Bowhead Whale

Germany

Sperm Whale

The Sperm Whale is the largest of all toothed whales and largest living toothed animal. The whale was named after the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in its head and originally mistaken for sperm or semen....
s.

Whale oil is chemically a liquid wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
and not a true oil. It flows readily, is clear, and varies in colour from a bright honey yellow to a dark brown, according to the condition of the blubber from which it has been extracted. Stearin

Stearin

Stearin is a glyceryl ester of stearic acid, derived from animal fats created as a byproduct of processing beef.It can also be found in tropical plants such as palm....
and spermaceti

Spermaceti

Spermaceti is a wax present in the head cavities of the sperm whale . Spermaceti is extracted from whale oil by crystallisation at 6 ?C, when treated by pressure and a chemical solution of caustic alkali....
may be separated from whale oil at low temperatures; at under 0°C these constituents may be almost completely crystallized and filtered out. When removed and pressed, this deposit is known as whale tallow

Tallow

Tallow is a rendering form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation....
, and the oil from which it is removed is known as pressed whale oil; yet is sometimes passed as sperm oil.

Spermaceti is derived from a wax in the Sperm Whale's head. A large whale can hold as much as three tons.

The first principal use of whale oil was as an illuminant in lamps

Oil lamp

An oil lamp is a simple vessel used to produce light continuously for a period of time from a fuel source. The use of oil lamps extends from prehistory to the present day....
and as candle wax. It was a major food of the aboriginal peoples of the Pacific northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America . There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest should not be confused with the Northwest Territory or the Northwest Territories of Canada....
, such as the Nootka

Nootka

Nootka may refer to:* The Nuu-chah-nulth indigenous peoples and their Nuu-chah-nulth language.* The place called Nootka Sound.* The island known as Nootka Island....
. Whale oil later came to be used in oiling wools for combing and other uses. It was the first of any animal or mineral oil to achieve commercial viability. It was used to make margarine

Margarine

Margarine , as a generic term, can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. In many parts of the world, margarine has become the best-selling table spread, although butter and olive oil also command large market shares....
.

However, with the 1986 International Whaling Commission

International Whaling Commission

The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which was signed in Washington on 2 December 1946 to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry"....
(IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, whale oil has all but ceased to be viable, as substitutes have been found for most of its uses, notably jojoba oil

Jojoba oil

Jojoba oil is the liquid wax produced in the seed of the jojoba plant, a shrub native to southern Arizona, southern California and northwestern Mexico....
.

In literature and memoirs

The pursuit and use of whale oil, along with many other aspects of whaling

History of whaling

The history of whaling is very extensive, stretching back for millennia. This article discusses the history of whaling up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986....
, are discussed in Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime....
's Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling Pequod , commanded by Captain Ahab....
. John R. Jewitt

John R. Jewitt

John Rodgers Jewitt was an Armorer who entered the historical record with his memoirs about the 28 months he spent as a captive of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth people on the Pacific coast of what is now Canada....
, an Englishman who wrote a memoir about his years as a captive of the Nootka

Nootka

Nootka may refer to:* The Nuu-chah-nulth indigenous peoples and their Nuu-chah-nulth language.* The place called Nootka Sound.* The island known as Nootka Island....
people on the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

Whale oil

In literature and memoirs

See also