CULTURE & EVENTS
LIENHARD’S LENS BY JOHN LIENHARD
We lit lamps with oil in antiquity. And we kept doing so until we had electricity. But what oil did we use? Petroleum found wide use only after the Civil War. Most lamp oils had come from vegetables or animal fat before that. So where did whale oil fit in? Well, it was America's most desired oil during the early 19th century. It had made whaling into a major American industry by 1820. That brings us to the Whale Oil Myth. That’s the idea that petroleum oil, and the free market, saved the whales. Whales had come under a 98
PARAMETERS Spring 2020
serious threat of extinction by 1860. And petroleum oil did fuel most lamps in the latter 19th century. So what really happened? The cost of whale oil had risen as we killed off whales. It had always been too costly for most ordinary users. And only the wealthy could afford it by the end of the Civil War. We lit most lamps with far cheaper oils – oils derived from coal, as well as from plants and land animals. We lit lamps with turpentine, lard, or alcohol. Then camphine became popular during the Civil War.
