246 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



makers purchasing? the crude head matter only. But gradually the 

 two industries were combined to their mutual advantage. When the 

 sperm-whale fishery developed to its full capacity, the production of 

 spermaceti was very large, averaging more than 3,000,000 pounds 

 annually from 1835 to 1845. With the decrease in extent of the fish- 

 ery, there was a corresponding decrease in the jde'ld of sftermaceti, 

 reaching its lowest product in 1890, when less than 200,000 pounds 

 were prepared. 



Spermaceti is among the very best materials for candle-making, the 

 product being beautifully semitransj)arent and nacreous, burning with 

 great regularity and with white light of high illuminating power; 

 yet owing to the cheapness of other materials, especiallj^ paraffin, 

 only a small percentage of the candles used at present are made of 

 this material. To reduce the tendency of spermaceti to crystallize in 

 molding and consequently lower its friability, it is customary to add 

 a little paraffin wax, tallow, stearin, beeswax, or cerasin. The clear 

 natural color of the refined spermaceti is usually preferred in candles, 

 but sometimes coloring material is introduced, in so small a quantity, 

 however, as not to destroy the transparency of the spermaceti. A 

 yellow tint is imparted by adding gamboge, a red by carmine, and a 

 blue b}^ Prussian blue. Owing to the cheapness and excellence of 

 paraffin candles, the consumption of spermaceti in candle-making 

 has been greatly reduced. The quantity thus used at the present 

 time bears no relation to the extensive use of petroleum wax for that 

 purpose, the consumption of which in Great Britain alone amounts to 

 upward of 50,000 tons annually. 



Sperm candles are at present the standard used by the principal 

 gas-examiners for photometric measurements. The rules for the 

 preparation of standard sperm candles for photometric purj^oses, 

 published by the Metropolitan Gas Referees, of London, prescribe 

 that, for the purpose of rendering the si^ermaceti less brittle, best air- 

 bleached beeswax, melting at about 144° F., shall be used exclusively, 

 and that the proportion of beeswax to spermaceti shall not be less than 

 3 per cent nor more than -i^ pei* cent; the spermaceti itself to be so 

 refined as to have a melting-point lying between 112° and 115° F." 



The production of spermaceti in 1901 in the United States was 

 about 400,000 pounds, worth $100,000. Of this amount probably 70 

 per cent was exported to Germany, England, and other foreign coun- 

 tries. Its principal foreign use is in the making of candles, large 

 quantities being made in England and Germany for ecclesiastical use, 

 especially in southern Europe. Minor uses are as an ointment for 

 medicinal purposes, in laundries for j)roducing a x^olish on linen, and 

 for self-lubricating cartridges. Of the domestic consumption, prob- 

 ably 5,000 i)Ounds are used in candle-making and the rest for medici- 

 nal and industrial purposes. 



« Joiirnal Society Chemical Industry, 1894, p. 65. 



