During the 1800s, whale oil was the source for lighting and was a huge worldwide industry with New Bedford, Massachusetts became the main hub of whale traders with 400 ports out of the 700 ports worldwide being located there, creating wealthy group of ship captains making fortune out of whaling.
Back then, whale was the only source of oil, with up to six barrels of oil per whale. Whale oil was used in making candles and lamps lighting every home, every street. Before Thomas Edison's invention of light bulb, people back then used candles and lamps to light their homes and was only made possible by the whaling industry at that time.
It was used also for making soap, margarine, bone corset and most of all, it was the oil behind the machines of the Industrial revolution- the time when the world started to use machines for production of goods. Then in 1859, oil from the ground was discovered by using drilling and oil wells were created as source of oil for kerosene lamp, machines, etc. Electricity eventually replaced oil as the source for lighting.
Environmentalists today should thank the oil industry for saving the whales. Imagine if oil from the ground was not discovered, or if Rockefeller did not expand Standard Oil, then you can say whales may be extinct by now.
Copyright 2013
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