288 HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 



on, will advantageously compare with inland manufacturing 

 and farming communities, in enterprise, wealth, educational 

 appliances, and in all the comforts, and even the luxuries, 

 of life. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 Manufacture of Oil. 



Crude oil, or oil in its natural state, is that which is ob- 

 tained from the blubber of the whale in the process of " try- 

 ing out" on shipboard. The oil, then, which is taken from 

 whale ships and carried to the oil manufactory, is said to be in 

 its crude state. We will speak first of the manufacture of 

 crude sperm oil.* 



The first step in the process of manufacture, is to take the 

 oil in its crude state, and put it into large kettles, or boilers, 

 and subject it to a heat of one hundred and eighty to two hun- 

 dred degrees, and then all the water which happened to be- 

 come mixed with the oil, either on shipboard or since, will 

 evaporate. 



Winter Strained Sperm Oil. In the fall, or autumn, 

 the oil is boiled for the purpose of granulation during the ap- 

 proaching cold weather. The oil thus passes from a purely 

 liquid into a solid state, or one in which it is in grains, or 

 masses. 



When the temperature of the atmosphere rises, or the weath- 

 er slackens during the winter, the oil which has been frozen, 

 but is now somewhat softened, is shovelled out of the casks and 



* The author is indebted to Charles J. Barney, Esq., foreman of Dr. Dan- 

 iel Fisher's oil factory, in Edgartown, one of the largest, if not the largest 

 in the country, for the principal facts respecting the manufacture of oil. 



