THE WHALING INDUSTRY 

 Table 155. Characteristics of Various Whale 



705 



Oils. 



ered. Large quantities are hardened and deodorized by hydrogenation. Hard- 

 ened whale oil is extensively used in the manufacture of candles, soap, and lard 

 substitutes. While hydrogenated whale oil is more nearly colorless and odorless 

 than most hardened fish oils, it is inferior to the latter for use in the preparation 

 of soaps as such soaps do not possess the best lathering properties. Hydrogenated 

 fish and whale oils were marketed in large quantities and under various trade 

 names in Germany before World War H. 



The lower qualities of whale oil are employed in the currying of leather, as a 

 lubricant, for tempering steel, as a "batching oil" for jute, etc. 



Waxy Oils. The liquid semisolid waxes come principally from the sperm, bot- 

 tlenose, and beaked whales. Although smaller amounts are found in other toothed 

 cetaceans, especially in those which dive deep for squid, no commercial produc- 

 tion of waxy oils is realized from them. 



Today the sperm oil from the whaling station is a mixture of sperm oil and 

 spermaceti; in other words, it is a mixture of oil from the body blubber which 

 is largely liquid, and that from the head which is largely semisolid spermaceti. 

 Formerly, these were kept distinct as body oil and head oil. Oil from the bottlenose 

 and beaked whale is called bottlenose oil, arctic sperm oil, doegling oil, pothead 

 oil, etc. Spermaceti from these species is not distinguished from that of the sperm 

 whale when separated from the crude. 



The liquid part, or sperm oil proper, is separated commercially into a number 

 of fractions with different component wax esters and slightly different properties, 



