Naman Chakraborty, Regular Indian
That Sperm Oil was the primary source of illumination for most of the world, not very long ago.
Before the discovery of Petroleum - the primary source of heat, light and energy in the world was this:
Well, not the Sperm Whale, but the Sperm Whale Oil, which was extracted from them. Each adult Sperm Whale Bull gave about 3 tonnes of whale oil.
This led to an intense whale hunting which drove the population of sperm whales down to its current figures. An estimated 250k whales were poached by American whalers alone in the 19th century.
Whale oil was multi purpose and was used for heating, lubrication, soaps along with processing textiles and ropes. But the biggest use of Whale Oil - Burning Lamps. It was smokeless, odorless and super cheap.
Thankfully, it was a Canadian who helped stop this American addiction. In 1849, Dr. Abraham Gesner, a geologist, figured a way to distill Kerosene from Petroleum and rest as they say, is history.
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