AQUATIC PRODUCTS IN ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 199 



fish oil may be kept in meat barrels. Tlie lettering is done in white 

 paint, on the heads of the casks. When the oil is shipped home bj' 

 another vessel the name of the ship is also branded on the cask, the 

 impression being made with an implement called the "ship's marking 

 iron," and the casks are numbered consecntively. 



REFINING SPERM OIL AND WHALE OIL. 



The rendering and care of the oil on shipboard having been 

 described, there remains to be discussed its further treatment for 

 commercial purposes, especially extraction of the foots and bleach- 

 ing. The headquarters of the refiners of whale oils in the United 

 States are at New Bedford, Mass., and San Francisco, Cal. Twenty 

 years ago New Bedford monopolized the business, but large refineries 

 have been erected at San Francisco, and at present about 20 per cent 

 of the sperm oil and (30 per cent of the whale oil are refined at that 

 port. The subjoined description is prepared almost wholly from 

 information furnished by the principal refiners of New Bedford in 

 1901. The writer wishes especially to acknowledge, in this connec- 

 tion, the courtesies of Messrs. William A. Robinson & Co., and of 

 Messrs. Frank L. Young & Kimball. 



As received at the refineries, the casks of oil have been inspected 

 and gaged by customs officers. Thej^ may have been kept in storage 

 for months, and in some cases j^ears, before reaching the refiner. 

 Formerly, on the wharves at New Bedford might be seen thousands 

 of casks filled with oil awaiting sale, being preserved from great leak- 

 age in the meantime by a covering of seaweeds; but in recent years 

 the quantity has been much reduced, and on the occasion of the 

 writer's last visit to New Bedford (October, 1901) not a single barrel 

 of oil was on the wharves. 



The oil is of two principal kinds, viz, sperm oil and whale oil, the 

 former being obtained from sperm whales and the latter from all other 

 varieties of whales and also from walrus, black-fish, sea-elephant, etc. 

 It ranges in color from clear amber to very dark broAvn, depending on 

 the variety of animal, the condition of the blubber, and the success 

 of the rendering. The quality is determined by appearance, odor, and 

 flavor. There is some difference in the value of crude oil of the same 

 species of whale from Northern and from Southern seas, the former 

 selling for a few cents more per gallon. Crude sperm oil was formerlj^ 

 worth about double the value of whale oil, but in recent years the dif- 

 ference has been much less. Little use is made of unrefined sperm 

 oil, but considerable of the product of whale oil is sold in a crude 

 state to steel-workers, miners, and cordage-manufacturers. 



The products from refining sperm oil are the " winter sperm," which 

 is the first running from the crude oil after it has been granulated by 

 refrigeration; the " spring sperm"; the "taut-pressed," and sperma- 

 ceti. The refined sperni oils are not generally sold in their natural 

 color, however, but are usually bleached bj^ a process which leaves 



