Besides the oil produced from blubber by boiling, the whalers distinguish such as oozes from the jawbones of the fish by the name of jawbone oil; and inferior oils, which are discoloured, by the denominations of brown oil and black oil, or bilge oil. Brown oil is produced in the way described in the process of boiling; black or bilge oil is that which leaks out of the casks in the course of the voyage, or runs out of any blubber which may happen to be in bulk, and accumulates in the bottom of the ship. This oil is always very dark coloured, viscous, and possessed of little transparency.
Whalebone, or whalefins, as the substance is sometimes, though incorrectly, named, is found in the mouth of the common Greenland whale, to which it serves as a substitute for teeth. It forms an apparatus most admirably adapted as a filter for separating the minute animals on which the whale feeds from the sea-water in which they exist. The Lawgiver of all the creatures, whether rational or irrational, has fitted them with organization appropriate for the purposes for which they live, and has provided them with all that is needful, according to their rank, for the happiness of their lives. The care which is bestowed upon the animals who do not recognise Him is in unison with that more tender kindness which he has manifested to such as have a mind to meditate on his perfections, and a heart wherewith to love him and adore.
The whalebone is a substance of a horny appearance and consistence, extremely flexible and elastic, generally of a bluish black colour, but not unfrequently striped longitudinally white, and exhibiting a beautiful play of colour on the surface. Internally, it is of a fibrous texture, resembling hair, and the external surface consists of a smooth enamel, capable of receiving a good polish. When taken from the whale, the whalebone consists of laminæ, connected by what is called the gum in a parallel series, and ranged along each side of the mouth of the animal. The laminæ are about three hundred in number, in each side of the head. The length of the longest blade, which occurs near the middle of the series, is the criterion fixed on by the fishers for designating the size of the fish. Its greatest length is about fifteen feet. The two sides or series of the whalebone are connected at the upper part of the head or crown-bone of the fish, within a few inches of each other, from whence they hang downwards, diverging so far as to inclose the tongue between their extremities; the position of the blades with regard to each other resembles a frame of saws in a saw-mill; and, taken altogether, they exhibit in some measure the form and position of the roof of a house. The smaller extremity and interior edge of each blade of whalebone, or the edge annexed to the tongue, are covered with a long fringe of hair, consisting of a similar kind of substance to that which constitutes the interior of the bone. Whale-bone is generally brought from Greenland in the same state as when taken from the fish, after being divided into pieces, comprising ten or twelve laminæ in each. Of late years, the price has usually been fluctuating between £50 and £150 per ton. It becomes more valuable as it increases in length and thickness.
In cleansing and preparing the whalebone, the first operation, if not already done, consists of depriving it of the gum. It is then put into a cistern containing water, till the dirt upon its surface becomes soft. When this effect is sufficiently produced, it is taken out piece by piece, laid on a plank placed on the ground, where the operator stands, and scrubbed or scoured with sand and water, by means of a broom or piece of cloth. It is then passed to another person, who, on a plank or bench, elevated to a convenient height, scrapes the root-end, where the gum was attached, until he produces a smooth surface; he, or another workman, then applies a knife or a pair of shears to the edge, and completely detaches all the fringe of hair connected with it. Another person, who is generally the superintendent of the concern, afterwards receives it, washes it in a vessel of clean water, and removes with a bit of wood the impurities out of the cavity of the root. Thus cleansed, it is exposed to the air and sun, until thoroughly dry, when it is removed into a warehouse or other place of safety and shelter.
Before it is offered for sale, it is usually scrubbed with brushes and hair-cloth, by which the surface receives a polish, and all dirt or dust adhering to it removed; and, finally, it is packed in portable bundles, consisting of about one hundred weight each. The size-bone, or such pieces as measure six feet or upwards in length, are kept separate from the under size, the latter being usually sold at half the price of the former. Each blade being terminated with a quantity of hair, there is sometimes a difficulty in deciding whether some blades of whalebone are size or not. Owing to the diminished value of under-sized bones, and more particularly in consequence of the captain and some of the officers engaged in a fishing-ship having a premium on every size fish, it becomes a matter of some importance in a doubtful case to decide this point. From a decision which, I understand, has been made in a court of law, it is now a generally received rule, that so much of the substance terminating each blade as gives rise to two or more hairs is whalebone; though in fact the hair itself is actually the same substance as that of which the whalebone is composed.
The oil produced from the blubber of the whale, in its most common state of preparation, is used for a variety of purposes. It is used in the lighting of the streets of towns, and the interior of places of worship, houses, shops, manufactories, etc.; it is extensively employed in the manufacture of soft soap, as well as in the preparing of leather and coarse woollen cloths; it is applicable in the manufacture of coarse varnishes and paints, in which, when duly prepared, it affords a strength of body more capable of resisting the weather than paint mixed in the usual way with vegetable oil; it is also extensively used for reducing friction in various kinds of machinery; combined with tar, it is much employed in ship-work, and in the manufacture of cordage, and either simple, or in a state of combination, it is applied to many other useful purposes.
One of the most extensive applications of whale-oil, that for illumination, has suffered a considerable diminution, in consequence of the appropriation of gas from coal to the same purpose. This discovery, brilliant as it is acknowledged to be, which in its first application bore such a threatening aspect against the usual consumption of oil, may be the means of bringing the oil of the whale into more extensive use than it has at any former period been. Whale-oil, in the most inferior qualities, is found to afford a gas which, in point of brilliancy, freeness of smell, and ease of manufacture, is greatly superior to that produced from coal. In places where coal is not very cheap, gas, it seems, can be produced from oil at about the same expense as coal-gas; consequently, the numerous advantages of the former will render it highly preferable. Whale-oil, when free from the incombustible and contaminating animal matters which are usually dissolved in it in consequence of putrefaction, is, then, applicable to a variety of purposes, in which the common oil cannot conveniently be employed. Even in its unrefined state, whale-oil frequently obtains an unmerited bad character for burning, when the fault lies in those who have the charge of the lamps in which it is consumed. Want of proper cleanliness, the use of wicks of too great diameter, and sometimes in a damp state, are common errors inimical to the obtaining of a good light.
The fenks, or ultimate refuse of the blubber of the whale, form an excellent manure, especially in soils deficient in animal matter. Fenks might be used, it is probable, in the manufacture of Prussian blue, and also for the production of ammonia. Footing, which is the finer detached fragments of the fenks, not wholly deprived of oil, may be used as a cheap material in the formation of gas. Whale’s tail can be converted into glue, and is extensively used in the manufacture of this article, especially in Holland. It forms, as I have already mentioned, chopping-blocks for the fishers. The jawbones, with the skull or crown-bone of the whale, are the largest found in nature. They are sometimes met with of the length of twenty-five feet. Jawbones are used as the ribs of sheds, and in the construction of arches and posts of gateways.
Whalebone, when softened in hot water, or simply by heating it before a fire, has the property of retaining any shape which may then be given to it, provided it be secured in the required form until it becomes cold. This property, together with its great elasticity and flexibility, renders it capable of being applied to many useful purposes. The first way in which it seems to have been employed was in the stays of ladies. Its application to this purpose was at one period, when the quantity imported was small, so general that it attained, in the wholesale way, the price of £700 per ton. Of late years, however, it has fallen somewhat into disrepute, some ladies preferring to support themselves with plates of steel. There has been for many years an extensive consumption of this article in the manufacture of umbrellas and parasols. The white enamel (found in some specimens of whalebone) has been fabricated into ladies’ hats, and a variety of ornamental forms of head-dresses; and the black enamel is employed, in the same way as cane, in the construction of the seats or backs of chairs, gigs, sofas, etc. The hair on the edge of the whalebone answers every purpose of bullock’s hair in stuffings for chairs, sofas, settees, carriages, mattresses, cushions, etc. An attempt has been made to build whale-boats of this material, but the great alteration which takes place in its dimensions, in different states of the atmosphere, on account of its ready absorption of moisture, renders it inapplicable. It has been used with a much better effect, in the construction of portmanteaus, travelling-trunks, hygrometers, the ram-rods of fowling-pieces, fishing-rods, the shafts, springs, and wheels of carriages, and various other articles.