Also the antifungus cream I'm using has synthetic sperm whale oil in it

all 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 51 points 9 months ago

  • "Gas was an environmental disaster, anyway. Now we use alternative fuels."

  • ―Leela

  • "Like what?"

  • ―Fry

  • "Whale oil."

  • ―Leela

  • source
  • [–] 44 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Yeah, whale oil was the base for a large host of high quality oils. It just happens to be real good.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    What makes a particular oil so good?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 42 points 9 months ago*

    The main use was for lighting as it burns cleanly and brightly. This was eventually replaced by kerosene which performs even better and doesn't leave a fishy odor.

    It was also good for machine lubrication; and didn't really have any notable competitors until petroleum-derived lubricants were developed and manufactured en-mass.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 39 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    The same story told from an environmentalist perspective: https://edconway.substack.com/p/no-kerosene-did-not-save-the-sperm

    So what really saved the whales? Well, the answer is first, the whaling bans. [...] In the face of this enforced shortage of whale oil, lubricant manufacturers and other users of whale oil had to try to find a satisfactory substitute.

    Lo and behold, in the 1970s there was a sharp rise in research and development spending on esters. Chemists worked out how to create synthetic alternatives.

    (The posted article has this too, and expands on the business side of it.)

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    What do the whales need this oil for? Is there oil in other animals? Is there human oil?

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    The function of spermaceti, i.e. the oil like substance in sperm whales, is unknown. But a lot of whale oil was extracted from heating whale blubber from different whale species.

    You can absolutely render out an oil of sorts from human adipose tissue. This may happen after we die under certain circumstances and can be found as adipocere, aka corpse wax.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I'm glad we found an alternative before people started using some sort of CAFO style farming for whale oil. All I can picture is like maple syrup tree taps in the poor animals heads.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Also the antifungus cream I'm using has synthetic sperm whale oil in it

    Ah, the margarine of anti-fungal creams.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    That's crazy. But also it's 2026 and we torture animals for food.

  • source
  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago*