Spermaceti (from Greek sperma, seed, and Latin cetus, whale) is a wax present in the head cavities of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). 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. Its biological function is to control buoyancy. The sperm whale is capable of heating the spermaceti so that it melts to form a liquid which allows the whale to float. In order for the whale to sink down again it must take water into its blowhole which cools the spermaceti into a more dense solid allowing the whale to sink.
Spermaceti is extracted from sperm oil by crystallisation at 6 °C (43 °F), 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. The candlepower was a photometric unit defined in the English Metropolitan Gas Act 1860 and adopted at the International Electrotechnical Conference of 1883. It depended upon a standardised pure spermaceti candle.
Contents |
Properties
Spermaceti is insoluble in water, very slightly soluble in cold alcohol, but easily dissolved in ether, chloroform, carbon disulfide, and boiling alcohol. Spermaceti consists principally of cetyl palmitate (the ester of cetyl alcohol and palmitic acid), C15H31COO-C16H33.
A botanical alternative to spermaceti is a derivative of jojoba oil, jojoba esters, C19H41COO-C20H41, a solid wax which is chemically and physically very similar to spermaceti and may be used in many of the same applications. Esters of cetyl alcohol and jojoba oil are used as a substitute for spermaceti.
Spermaceti processing
Spermaceti was gathered during whaling and was considered a valuable resource by whalers due to the high price that could be fetched for it. The sperm whale's head was either brought on deck or lashed to the side of the ship where the whalemen would cut a hole in the case. The spermaceti could then be drawn out by bucket or a whaleman would enter the hole and manually remove the fluid. Accounts suggest that this procedure changed little from the earliest days of sperm whaling to the advent of modern technology in the 20th century.[1] Once gathered the spermaceti would be placed in barrels for the voyage home. A large whale could have as much as 500 gallons.[2]
Biological function
The most likely primary function of the spermaceti organ is to add internal echo or resonator clicks to the sonar echo location clicks emitted by the respiratory organs. This makes it possible for the whale to sense the motion of its prey as well as its position. The changing distance to the prey affects the time interval between the returning clicks reflected by the prey (doppler effect). This would explain the low density and high compressibility of the spermaceti, which enhance the resonance by the contrast of the acoustic properties of the sea water and of the hard tissue surrounding the spermaceti.
Currently there may not be full agreement on what biological purpose or purposes spermaceti serves. It might be used as a means of altering the whale's buoyancy, since the density of the spermaceti alters with its phase.[3] Another hypothesis has been that it is used as a cushion to protect the sperm whale's delicate snout while diving.[4][5] The whale's head may be used as a ram, perhaps to stun its prey, but that does not seem to account for the unusual properties of this substance.
References
- ^ Melville, Herman (2008). Moby Dick. City: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-953572-9.
- ^ Moby Dick, chapter LXXVII
- ^ Clarke, M.R. (November 1970). "Function of the Spermaceti Organ of the Sperm Whale". Nature 228 (5274): 873–874. doi:10.1038/228873a0. PMID 16058732.
- ^ Christopher Grayce, NEWTON, Sperm whales' name, "[1]", Last accessed October 2, 2010
- ^ Doug Lennox, Dundurn Press, 2006, Now You Know: The Book of Answers, "[2]", Last accessed October 2, 2010.
- David R. Carrier, Stephen M. Deban and Jason Otterstrom, The face that sank the Essex: potential function of the spermaceti organ in aggression, Journal of Experimental Biology '205:'1755–1763, 2002.
- Dolin, Eric Jay (2007). Leviathan, The History of Whaling in America. W.W. Norton & Co.. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/978039360577|978039360577]].
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
|