A Bottle of Sperm Oil

The bottle shown here contains sperm oil. As the label indicates, the oil is intended for use as a high performance lubricant for jeweller and watchmaker’s lathes, or for wetting grindstones and oilstones. The size of the bottle alone makes it clear that this oil was intended for very special applications – and that its price was correspondingly high. It most likely would not have ever crossed anyone’s mind to simply burn this oil in a lamp.
Spermaceti, a waxy substance obtained from the head of the sperm whale, was originally mistaken for the animal’s sperm. It was used, among other things, to make candles that burned especially brightly and evenly. In the 19th century, these special candles set the technical standard for luminosity. Light-yellow low-viscosity oil could also be produced from spermaceti: sperm oil. Although it was also used as lamp oil, its primary application was as a select lubricant because of its low-viscosity and stability.