If you are like most folks, you think about the birth of the Industrial Revolution coinciding with the discovery of petroleum in the mid-1850s, and like those other folks, you will be wrong.

You see, the Industrial Revolution began in the early decades of the 18th Century, not a century later with the discovery of oil. Oil proved indispensable as a lubricator, source of light, part of consumer products, and industrialization on a massive scale.

However, since petroleum wasn’t discovered till about 1850, where did the oil necessary for the Industrial Revolution come from?

Whales. And, in particular, sperm whales. Each a living, breathing oil well.

Though we have a tendency to think of whales being hunted for their meat back then, it simply isn’t true.

The explanation? There was simply no commercial or economic value in whale meat.

Whaling expeditions often lasted nearly three years. Without refrigerators or freezers, the beef quickly rotted and was discarded where it fed the sharks and other sea creatures.

Blubber, on the other hand, was easily be rendered into oil, stored in barrels, and sold on return to port. It was extremely valuable and essential to the beginning of the Industrial Age.

Back then, there were likely more than a million sperm whales coursing the oceans. The biggest bulls could produce a ton and a half of the finest oil on the planet and even average sized whales produced 30-40 barrels.

It’s no accident that the whale in Moby Dick was a giant sperm whale hunted by the whaling ship of Captain Ahab. These were by far and away the most valuable creatures in the world.

It was quickly discovered that whale oil burned much brighter than pork or cattle fat so much so that New England light houses managed to be seen by ships way out to sea.

It also burned much cleaner, with a lot less smoke, allowing it to be employed in houses of the growing American and English middle class.

Nearly a century and a quarter before Thomas Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company, the large City of London had thousands of street lamps—the most of any place on earth—lighted with whale oil.

Sperm oil was so fine it was employed for the most delicate instruments of the Industrial Revolution, from chronometers to wrist watches.

It not only lubricated the earliest machines of the Industrial Revolution, it was responsible for the development of entire industries like England’s textile industry. The oil was employed to light newly developing textile plants, lubricate newly invented machines, and even blended with raw products like jute to make the fabrics people wore.

50,000 workers were employed in textile plants alone—thanks to the sperm whales.

But , of course, sperm whales weren’t unlimited and by the middle of the 19th century their numbers had declined by nearly a third.

Luckily, for approximately a century thereafter, they received a respite because, once crude oil was discovered, it reduced the use of whale oil.

But, the relief from hunting didn’t last.

Unfortunately, the resumption of commercial whaling operations in the early 1950s nearly eliminated whales when whaling was taken over by huge fleets of factory ships.

However, in 1980, commercial whaling was banned world-wide (except for subsistence hunting in some places) and so called “research” whaling by Japan and some Scandinavian countries.

Sperm whales are now recovering, even tho slowly.

Today, whale watching has turned into a significant, and increasing, source of cash for nations around the world as visitors head to see them swim majestically.

While all marvel at these magnificent creatures, just about anyone knows or appreciates the part they played in the development of the Industrial Revolution that has led on to our ability to develop modern machines, light our homes, even travel the planet.

For 250 years, our industrialized society relied upon these magnificent living oil wells to power and lubricate new machines, develop new industries, and even make products from fabrics to lipstick to ointments and clean lights.

But now you know. So, next time you see a whale, tell your family and friends that these whales aren’t just another pretty face.

Without them, the Industrial Revolution would look completely different.

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