Sperm Whale Oil 🐋

I had no idea that sperm whale oil was a key ingredient for both automatic transmission fluid and certain high temperature hydraulic fluids prior to its ban in 1972, and for a number of years in the 1970s the synthetic replacements were inferior especially in high temperature applications.

The banning of sperm whale harvest lead to a  new industry popping up in cities during the 1970s – the transmission repair shop. Peak whaling years was the late 1950s into the 1960s, far exceeding the whale oil for lighting boom of the 1870s. Over 250,000 sperm whales per year were harvested in the early sixties – which put then at risk of extinction despite their widely distributed population due to their low reproduction rate and long lifespan.

Read more about Sperm Whale Oil and Transmissions.  https://www.jalopnik.com/1949479/whale-oil-in-car-transmissions/

How they figured out alternatives to Sperm Whale Oil for high temperature lubricants. https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/the-innovation-file-solving-a-whale-of-a-problem/#gsc.tab=0