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It's rather obvious that it's whale oil, given that whales used to be hunted for their oil. I don't know how you could even assume that a whale skeleton would d
by gwbas1c 2y ago
It's rather obvious that it's whale oil, given that whales used to be hunted for their oil. I don't know how you could even assume that a whale skeleton would drip petroleum.
Funny anecdote: The automatic transmission used to be lubricated with whale oil because it (whale oil) could handle higher temperatures than petroleum based lubricants. It was banning whaling in the 20th century that lead to developing petroleum-based high-heat lubricants.
- giraffe_lady 2y agoI think the transmission stuff was sperm oil, wax from head of a sperm whale. Which probably accounts for some of the confusion here. There were several different products derived from whales, if you're not aware of that you wouldn't expect to find sperm whale dome grease in a blue whale's bones. The nomenclature isn't that clear, and none of us have first hand experience with any of them anymore so all of our knowledge about this is from third hand reddit TILs and moby dick.
- userbinator 2y agoYes, very familiar with vintage ATF and it has a distinctive smell different from later formulations, likely due to the use of whale oil (whaleoleum?) instead of petroleum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEXRON#1973_–_DEXRON-II(C) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEXRON#1973_–_DEXRON-II(C)
- poulsbohemian 2y ago> I don't know how you could even assume that a whale skeleton would drip petroleum. Rather than being an ass, perhaps you could read my comment and note that I quote the article in which it appears to reference a goddamn oil tanker as the cause of death. We fucking know whales were hunted for their oil, now are you ready to join the adults in the conversation or are you going to continue to be a know-it-all prick?