The most incredible thing to me in this article was learning that whale oil was once used to margarine! A second hydrogenation technology was used to make

The most incredible thing to me in this article was learning that whale oil was once used to margarine! A second hydrogenation technology was used to make margarine mainly from nondairy fats, a vital resource at a time when dairy fat was precious. One remarkable and little-known consequence of this technology was the creation of a vast new 20th-century whaling industry. By 1914 whale oil was already being hydrogenated for margarine by the emerging great margarine firms, but by the 1930s this was its main use. The 1920s and 1930s saw a huge expansion in whaling in the South Atlantic, using large factory whaling ships. Whale oil was ultimately used to make some 30% to 50% of all European margarine at this time.