Why do sperm whales have oil in their heads? After the monkey lips generate sound waves, the oil-filled organ in the whale's head focuses them, researchers believe. The most likely reason it has evolved to such an extreme size is to help the sperm whale chase down giant squid.
What is sperm whale oil used for?
What is sperm whale oil used for? After removal of spermaceti and treatment with sulfur, sperm oil provided excellent lubricants that resisted extreme pressures. These were commonly used in mechanical transmissions, high-speed machinery, and precision instruments. The oil was also hardened to make textile sizings.
Why is the sperm whale called a "sperm" whale?
A sperm whale is called that because the sperm whale has some waxy substance on the surface of its head so during the early ages people thought this was sperm. It's actually Spermaceti the name derives from the late Latin sperma ceti (both words loaned from Greek. Why is a sperm whale called a sperm whale?
What is whale sperm used for?
Sperm whales, which are among the largest of their species ... on estimated revenues of €20m through the refund of 300,000 concert tickets to music fans Used-car salesman, whose appeal against IRA membership conviction was unopposed, vows not to allow ...
Do sperm whales have hair?
Whales have hair. Although they don’t look furry, whales do have hair, Hodgins says, explaining that some whales and dolphins are born with what look like whiskers on their beaks. These whiskers ...
What is the oil in a sperm whale's head?
spermacetispermaceti, a wax, liquid at body temperature, obtained from the head of a sperm whale or bottlenose whale. Spermaceti was used chiefly in ointments, cosmetic creams, fine wax candles, pomades, and textile finishing; later it was used for industrial lubricants.
Why do whales contain oil?
The main use of whale oil was for illumination and machine lubrication.
Does a sperm whale have oil?
Sperm oil is a waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales. It is a clear, yellowish liquid with a very faint odor. Sperm oil has a different composition from common whale oil, obtained from rendered blubber.
Why was sperm whale oil so valuable?
Whale oil became the hot-ticket item of its day. It made its way into miner's headlamps and became a go-to lubricant for guns, watches, clocks, sewing machines and typewriters, Dyer said. What's more, sperm oil can withstand high temperatures, leading to its use as a lubricant in fast-moving machinery.
What was sperm oil used for?
After removal of spermaceti and treatment with sulfur, sperm oil provided excellent lubricants that resisted extreme pressures. These were commonly used in mechanical transmissions, high-speed machinery, and precision instruments. The oil was also hardened to make textile sizings.
What do they do with whale oil?
Long utilized for lubricating fine instruments, whale oil was treated with sulfur to provide high-pressure lubricants used in machinery, and it was also important in the manufacture of varnish, leather, linoleum, and rough cloth (especially jute).
What is sperm whale junk?
The junk of the sperm whale is the fatty structure found in the forehead of other toothed whales and known by whalers as the “melon” because of its pale yellow colour and uniform consistency.
Can whale oil explode?
It is extremely unstable and volatile; throwing or shooting a full whale oil tank will cause it to explode. It is speculated that whale oil is naturally produced within the bodies of whales due to great pressures deep in the ocean, for the purpose of temperature regulation.
Is whale oil toxic?
Analyzing whale oil from the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan's last voyage, in 1921, marine chemists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that the oil contained chemical compounds with properties similar to toxic PCBs and the pesticide DDT.
How much did a barrel of whale oil cost?
All combined, the many uses of whale oil allowed one standard 31.5 gallon barrel of crude whale oil to be worth about $25 in 1902 - or about $700 in today's dollars. Immediately after the Civil War, in 1866, the price was $80/barrel, or more than $1200 per barrel today.
How is sperm wax extracted?
Spermaceti wax is extracted from sperm oil by crystallisation at 6 °C (43 °F), when treated by pressure and a chemical solution of caustic alkali.
How much wax is in whale oil?
The blubber oil of the whale is about 66% wax. When it cools to 30 °C or below, the waxes begin to solidify. The speed of sound in spermaceti is 2,684 m/s (at 40 kHz, 36 °C), making it nearly twice as good a conductor of sounds as the oil in a dolphin's melon.
What is a raw spermaceti?
Raw spermaceti is liquid within the head of the sperm whale, and is said to have a smell similar to raw milk. It is composed mostly of wax esters (chiefly cetyl palmitate) and a smaller proportion of triglycerides. Unlike other toothed whales, most of the carbon chains in the wax esters are relatively long (C 10 –C 22 ).
What is spermaceti wax?
Spermaceti. A spermaceti wax candle and bottle of sperm oil. Spermaceti (from Greek sperma meaning "seed", and ceti, the genitive form of "whale") is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head.
What temperature does Spermaceti wax melt?
This wax, brown in color, was then bleached and sold as "spermaceti wax". Spermaceti wax is white and translucent. It melts at about 50 °C (122 °F) and congeals at 45 °C (113 °F).
What is the function of the Spermaceti organ?
The most likely primary function of the spermaceti organ is to add internal echo or resonator clicks to the sonar echo location clicks emitted by the respiratory organs. This makes it possible for the whale to sense the motion of its prey as well as its position.
What is the botanical alternative to Spermaceti?
A botanical alternative to spermaceti is a derivative of jojoba oil, jojoba esters, C 19 H 41 COO-C 20 H 41, a solid wax which is chemically and physically very similar to spermaceti and may be used in many of the same applications.
Why is the skull of a sperm whale asymmetrical?
Like that of other toothed whales, the skull of the sperm whale is asymmetrical so as to aid echolocation. Sound waves that strike the whale from different directions will not be channeled in the same way.
What is a sperm whale's tail lobe?
This gives rise to a distinctive bushy, forward-angled spray. The sperm whale's flukes (tail lobes) are triangular and very thick. Proportionally, they are larger than that of any other cetacean, and are very flexible. The whale lifts its flukes high out of the water as it begins a feeding dive.
How many teeth does a sperm whale have?
The teeth fit into sockets along the upper jaw. ( lifelike sculpture) The sperm whale's lower jaw is very narrow and underslung. The sperm whale has 18 to 26 teeth on each side of its lower jaw which fit into sockets in the upper jaw.
How big do sperm whales get?
Female sperm whales are physically mature at about 10.6 to 11 meters (35 to 36 ft) in length and generally don't grow much larger than about 12 metres (39 ft). Male sperm whales are physically mature at about 16 metres (52 ft) in length and generally reaching a maximum of about 18 to 19 meters (59 to 62 ft).
What order is sperm whale?
Taxonomy. The sperm whale belongs to the order Cetartiodactyla, the order containing all cetaceans and even-toed ungulates. It is a member of the unranked clade Cetacea, with all the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and further classified into Odontoceti, containing all the toothed whales and dolphins.
Why is a whale's click unique?
Because the interval between pulses of a sperm whale's click is related to the length of the sound producing organ, an individual whale's click is unique to that individual. However, if the whale matures and the size of the spermaceti organ increases, the tone of the whale's click will also change.
What is the largest toothed whale?
The sperm whale or cachalot ( Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia .
What is the purpose of sperm whales?
Sperm whales are large toothed whales and are known for diving into the ocean depths to feed on squid, forming close social groups and featuring in the famous novel Moby Dick. However, its most distinctive characteristic is its enlarged forehead, which contains a reservoir of spermaceti, an oily mixture of fats and waxes, around an upper ‘spermaceti organ’ and lower ‘junk’ compartment. Various theories have been proposed to explain their function, especially the spermaceti organ. These include a role in controlling air movement within the whale’s body, for using their head as a ‘battering ram’ and to control their buoyancy at depth.
What was the prize for the whale industry?
As in other targeted whale species, their blubber was a valuable commodity, but the real prize was the spermaceti oil, which was an effective lubricant and burnt bright in oil lamps.
Overview
Spermaceti is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head. This organ may contain as much as 1,900 litres (500 US gal) of spermaceti.
The whaling industry in the 17th and 18th centuries was developed to find, har…
Etymology
Spermaceti is derived from Medieval Latin sperma ceti, meaning "whale sperm" (from Latin sperma meaning "semen" or "seed", and ceti, the genitive form of "whale"). The substance was initially believed to be whale semen, due to its appearance when fresh. The substance is also the origin of the name of the sperm whale.
Properties
Raw spermaceti is liquid within the head of the sperm whale, and is said to have a smell similar to raw milk. It is composed mostly of wax esters (chiefly cetyl palmitate) and a smaller proportion of triglycerides. Unlike other toothed whales, most of the carbon chains in the wax esters are relatively long (C10–C22). The blubber oil of the whale is about 66% wax. When it cools to 30 °C or below, the …
Biological function
Currently there is disagreement on what biological purpose or purposes spermaceti serves. In prior centuries it was important enough to send thousands of mariners in search of the sperm whale in an effort to harvest the head. The proportion of wax esters retained by an average (living) whale head appears to reflect buoyancy influenced by heat. Changes in density likely enhance echolocation. It might be used as a means of adjusting the whale's buoyancy, since the density o…
Spermaceti processing
After killing a sperm whale, the whalers would pull the carcass alongside the ship, cut off the head and pull it on deck. Then, they would cut a hole in it and bail out the matter inside with a bucket. The harvested matter, raw spermaceti, was stored in casks to be processed back on land. A large whale could yield as much as 500 gallons. The spermaceti was boiled and strained of impurities to prevent it from going rancid. On land, the casks were allowed to chill during the winter, causin…
Gallery
• Processing of spermaceti
• 1864 illustration captioned: "Removing the spermaceti from the head of the cachelot, or sperm whale"
• A whaler bailing spermaceti from the severed head of a sperm whale (1874 illustration).
See also
• Whale oil
Further reading
• Carrier, David R.; Deban, Stephen M.; Otterstrom, Jason (2002). "The face that sank the Essex: potential function of the spermaceti organ in aggression" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Biology. 205 (Pt 12): 1755–1763. doi:10.1242/jeb.205.12.1755. PMID 12042334.
• Dolin, Eric Jay (2007). Leviathan, The History of Whaling in America. W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06057-7.