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Spermaceti sometimes erroneously called parmaceti is a wax present in the head cavities of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Spermaceti is extracted from sperm oil by crystallisation at 6 degree Celsius, when treated by pressure and a chemical solution of caustic alkali. Spermaceti forms brilliant white crystals that are hard but oily to the touch, and are devoid of taste or smell, making it very useful as an ingredient in cosmetics, leatherworking, and lubricants. The substance was also used in making candles of a standard photometric value, in the dressing of fabrics, and as a pharmaceutical excipient, especially in cerates and ointments.
Originally mistaken for the whales sperm (hence the name), spermaceti is created in the Spermaceti organ inside the whale's head and connected to its nasal passage, among other functions.
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Who had the job of removing the spermaceti oil from the whale's head?
tashtego
Where is the valuable oil called spermaceti located on a sperm whale?
case
Are all sperm whales males?
No, the name comes from the substance found in their heads, spermaceti
How many Sperm Whale heads does it take tp make 5 spermaceti candles?
one
What is spermacetea?
Same thing as spermaceti, an oily substance from the heads of certain whales that historically was used in the manufacture of candles.
Does lipstick have whale blubber in it?
In the very old days when there was still an American whaling trade, the most popular whale to kill was the sperm whale. These whales have a big chamber in their heads that holds a wax called spermaceti. There's no sperm in it and the chamber is in both male and female whales, but whalers went after this whale because the six thousand pounds of spermaceti in the head of one whale was worth more than the entire rest of the whale. In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, there's a chapter about how the spermaceti was harvested: they beheaded the whale, tied it to the side of the ship, cut a hole in the spermaceti chamber and dipped out the spermaceti. The same book tells of a whaleman who fell into the chamber and had to be rescued. Today, they don't make lipstick from spermaceti for three reasons--you can't get it anymore, if you could there would be international outrage directed against your company for using it, and jojoba oil happens to have the same chemical composition as spermaceti and is safer to gather as well.
How did whales get its name?
It has a substance in its head called spermaceti which is milky white and used to be mistaken for sperm. It had various commercial uses that made it quite valuable. It's thought to be associated with the animal's hearing, by helping its ears detect sound when under the water."The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in its head . " ~ WikipediaI believe it is named after the spermaceti that can be extracted from the whale's head. It is a white, milky substance that can easily be (and has been) mistaken for the whale's seman.You're right: it is. It forms a fatty structure that may be connected with the animal's hearing underwater.Obviously as mammals the male sperm whales also make reproductive sperm - but not in their heads as the old-time whale-hunters mistakenly thought!
Is lip gloss made out is whale sperm?
It used to be made from "spermaceti," which is a fat you'll find in the head of a sperm whale. There's no sperm in spermaceti. Now they use Jojoba oil, which is a very good replacement for spermaceti.
What lip sticks are made of of whale blubber?
None of it anymore, for three reasons. Reason 1: there's no whale blubber available to make into cosmetics. Reason 2: even if there WERE whale blubber available, it would be cheaper to use plant-derived ingredients like jojoba oil, shea butter and cocoa butter. Reason 3: if whale blubber was available and if it was cheaper than plant oils, no one would use it because the public backlash would be too great.
What cosmetics are used from blue whales?
The product from whales that was used in cosmetics--it's not anymore--is spermaceti, which comes from sperm whales rather than blue whales.
How does taking blubber from whales to make lipstick effect them?
No, and they never did. There is a whale called a Sperm Whale. In the head of the whale is a cavity called the Tun, which holds a product called Sperm Oil. This doesn't actually contain any sperm, and no one's really sure why it's in there. Whalers of old would go out to catch sperm whales, behead them, throw the back part of the whale in the ocean where it was eaten by sharks, then bail the sperm oil out of the tun and process it to make spermaceti. Hermann Melville's Moby-Dick has a very good description of the steps necessary to catch a sperm whale and recover the spermaceti from it. The resultant spermaceti is a wonderful product to make all sorts of cosmetic items. There are just two problems with it: you've got to kill a whale to get real spermaceti, and this particular whale has no qualms about turning around and eating the whalers or dragging them under the water where they drown. A LOT of people died in the sperm whale fishery. (Blubber was rendered down into oil, which was used mostly for lighting.) Spermaceti is such a good product our cosmetic chemists went to work on inventing a substitute, and they've got one. Synthetic spermaceti--which doesn't have to be called "synthetic" since you can't get the real stuff anymore--is made by esterification of jojoba oil with cetyl alcohol. (Cetyl alcohol is made from palm oil, and is also called palmytic oil.) People who have seen both confirm synthetic spermaceti to be every bit as good as the real thing--better, actually, since the only thing that dies is jojoba seeds.
When one of the Pequods crewmembers fell into the ocean while removing spermaceti oil from a whale what happened next in the story?
Queequeg jumped into the water and saved him!LaPoynor High School A+
