292 HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 



It should be observed, however, that the spermaceti from the 

 body oil of the whale makes harder candles than the sperma- 

 ceti from the head matter ; but the head oil or matter gives a 

 greater proportion of spermaceti, and is more valuable than that 

 from the body oil. Besides, the spermaceti from the head oil 

 is quite different from that of the body oil ; the former pre- 

 sents fine, bright, transparent scales, like small particles of 

 isinglass, while the latter is more compact, something like 

 dough. In cooling, one exhibits a sparry, crystalline struc- 

 ture, the other that of clay. 



Head oil or matter is usually manufactured with the body 

 oil of the whale, and mixed in proportion to one third of the 

 former to two thirds of the latter. 



Spermaceti Candles. That which remains in the bags 

 after the hydraulic pressure is both dry and brittle. The oil, 

 it is supposed, is wholly extracted, and nothing now remains 

 but the spermaceti. Its color, however, is not white, but in- 

 terspersed with grayish streaks, bordering on the yellow. 



The spermaceti is put into large boilers adapted for the pur- 

 pose, and heated to the temperature of two hundred and ten 

 degrees. It is refined and cleared of all foreign ingredients 

 by the application of alkali. Afterwards water is added, 

 which, with a temperature of two hundred and forty degrees, 

 throws off the alkali in the form of vapor. The liquid which 

 remains is as pure and clear as the crystal water, and ready to 

 be made into the finest spermaceti candles. 



Right Whale Oil. The manufacturing of this variety of 

 oil is of recent date, (within twenty-five years.) At first, in 

 preparing it for sale, it was taken in its crude state and "recked 

 off," that is, simply pumped out of the casks, and leaving the 

 sediment behind. This kind of oil then was as cheap as milk 

 is now. 



Bleaching Oil. Crude oil is bleached in the first place by 

 putting it into large kettles, applying alkali to it in proportion 

 of one quart of alkali to one barrel of oil, and then heating it 



