# Sperm Whale Oil **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825 "2003-01-15T21:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/1 "2003-01-15T21:13:46Z")
Was sperm whale oil a principle (90%+) component of automatic transmission fluid up to around 1974? Read a recent op/ed piece where a columnist was answering mail regarding an opinion about “stick” vs. “automatic” transmissions. Part way through, he interjected how the “Save the Whales” people were responsible for getting Sperm Whale oil out of automatic transmission fluid around 1974 via the “Endangered Species Act”. I’ve been around quite a few years but this is a new one on me. My subscription to “Great American Whaling Ships of the 1950’s and 1960’s” must have run out. Yeah, the stuff was used in lamps and as a fine machine oil around the turn of the century (excuse me, the 19th to 20th century). I don’t think the commercial harvest of whales continued up to the 1970’s in other than Japan and a Scandinavia especially in quantities required to support automatic transmission use. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/2 "2003-01-15T22:10:23Z")
Well, unless these writers didn’t do their homework and are just repeating factoids, it looks like it’s true. [http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/26/pf/autos/stick\_feedback/](http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/26/pf/autos/stick_feedback/) > [@](#): > > Stick vs. automatic: what you said > > Stick-loving CNN/Money readers fire back. > January 9, 2003: 3:05 PM EST > By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money Staff Writer > > …Prior to the 1974 endangered species act, automatic transmissions were filled with fluid that was 95 percent sperm whale oil and it was just the stuff for the job. That oil lasted a long time, said Roger Kwapich, auto mechanic and host of the “Consumer Automotive Repair Show” (The C.A.R. Show) a syndicated radio show. Also, it had just the right properties, allowing transmissions to slip when they needed to slip and grab when they needed to grab, he said. > > Ever since it became illegal to kill sperm whales for our motoring pleasure, automotive fluid makers have been trying to “reverse engineer” the stuff that poured out of those whales’ heads by the gallon. Early attempts weren’t so great and frequent transmission breakdowns were the result. But today’s transmissions hold about just about as well as the old whale oil ones. [http://www.machinerylubrication.com/article\_detail.asp?articleid=392](http://www.machinerylubrication.com/article_detail.asp?articleid=392) > [@](#): > > …Thirty to forty years ago, we had the perfect ingredients for long transmission life: low heat demand and a ready supply of whale oil. Most of the cars in junkyards arrived with functioning transmissions. We did not have the heat demands on the motors we have today. In previous columns, I’ve written of the increase of thermostat temperatures - and that the transmission oil used typically was almost perfect. Mechanics never changed the fluid until fixing a leaking gasket or seal. Worn out and failed transmissions were rare. There were not as many franchised transmission shops back then. > > The trouble was, thousands of sperm whales were killed every year to acquire the almost 29 million pounds of whale oil used in ATF. Sperm whale oil is an almost pure ester, not really an oil at all. So the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was brought about partly by automatic transmissions. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/3 "2003-01-15T22:16:52Z")
In the early 1970?s over 30 million pounds a year of sperm whale oil was needed to manufacture automatic transmission fluid. If there hadn’t been a demand, they wouldn’t have had to ban whaling. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/4 "2003-01-15T22:28:18Z")
I’m more intersted in why they’re called _sperm_ whales. Does it have anything to do with Moby Dick? ---
**Author:** ![jack\_ss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jack\_ss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jack_ss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/5 "2003-01-15T22:35:26Z")
yep. [http://www.whalecarver.com/Sperm%20Whale%20front%20view.jpg](http://www.whalecarver.com/Sperm%20Whale%20front%20view.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/6 "2003-01-15T22:43:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sqweels \* > \*\*I’m more intersted in why they’re called _sperm_ whales. Does it have anything to do with Moby Dick? \*\* The “oil” is a whitish substance, found in a case within the whale’s head, which is liquid at body temperature. It was thought to resemble semen in appearance, hence the name “sperm whale.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/7 "2003-01-15T23:01:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nametag \* > **In the early 1970?s over 30 million pounds a year of sperm whale oil was needed to manufacture automatic transmission fluid.** That’s what url=http://www.alldata.com/techtips/trivia/1998/19980803-trivia.html]this site claims. That’s 15,000 tons Another site says a large male sperm whale yields about 3 tons of oil, a female 1-2 tons. So that implies a catch of maybe 10,000 sperm whales a year. This seems to me to be an awful lot for the early 1970s. But I haven’t found any figures on catch yet. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/8 "2003-01-15T23:05:31Z")
Link fixed: [this site](http://www.alldata.com/techtips/trivia/1998/19980803-trivia.html) Guess I was wrong. [This indicates](http://luna.pos.to/whale/iwc_chair70_13.html) that the limit on the sperm whale catch in 1970 was about 15,000 individuals, which is the right ball park. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/9 "2003-01-15T23:34:45Z")
I was working a TRW at the time - a division which made (declines to specify) parts for large trucks. One of my tasks was to search for any remaining specification for part # XXXXXX (sperm whale oil) and replace it with # YYYYYY. The only unit still using it was a almost-never ordered part for a heavy military truck (a really crude design dating to WWII). So yes, there is living memory of the implementation of that law. (had to share) ---
**Author:** ![aeropl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/10 "2003-01-16T00:33:40Z")
Speaking of Sperm Whale Oil- What the heck is the biological function of that stuff? Not many animals go around with a couple tons of ester floating around in their noggin. [This site](http://www.nature.com/nsu/020603/020603-7.html) says "All this oil could function a bit like a car’s airbag " Does that mean biologists don’t really know for sure? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/11 "2003-01-16T00:55:31Z")
I thought it was in some kind of oil-filled resonating organ, to do with either echo-location or communication, or both ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sperm-whale-oil/148825/12 "2003-01-16T01:07:52Z")
There are threee schools of thought on the sperm whale’s head and its oil. I think the majority view is that it focuses sound waves, allowing the whale to make narrowly directed beams of sound, as well as louder sounds. A less favored, but still widespread, view is that the spermaceti organ acts like the float organ in a fish, allowing the sperm whale to achieve greater depths. Finally, there’s the battering-ram theory espoused by one guy. It’s not impossible.