The Rise of the American Whale Oil Industry

Eric Hilt is an economic historian at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. He says that whale oil was valuable as a lubricant and energy source. Lighthouses, which need to be very bright and street lights, which also need to be bright, they burned exclusively sperm whale oil. Baleen whales have another product within their bodies called baleen. It's this keratinous substance that they use in their mouths to sort of strain the water. Ambergris came from what part of the whale? From the intestines of sperm whales only. Do most people who use perfume that contains ambergris know it comes from whale vomit? I don't know. Apparently it washes up