Marine animal waxes
Description
Spermaceti is a wax found in the head cavities of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus Linné (P. catadan), which is the largest of the toothed whales or cachalots. Spermaceti also occurs to a much lesser extent in the blubber oil of the sperm whale, an in the bottlenose whale, Balaena rostrata and a few other cetaceans, but not in the oil of the whalebone whales.
The sperm whale is 60 to 80 feet length, with an enormous head, 30 feet in circumference, in which there is a large hollow on the upper surface of the skull, filled with a peculiar fatty tissue. When the spongy mass is removed from the head, the oil is allowed to separate by draining. Spermaceti is in the oil in a dissolved state while the animal is living, but tends to concrete later on. The resultant mass, after draining the oil, is boiled in a 2 to 3 per cent lye solution to clean it; it is then washed free from alkali, and the wax melted and moulded into cakes.
One sperm whale yields upward of three tons of oil and over 500 pounds of spermaceti. The blubber oil can be hydrogenated to obtain a spermaceti wax that is a trifle harder and higher in melting point (46 - 50ºC) than the natural spermaceti (m. 43 - 47ºC). In the refineries the strained oil is allowed to stand in refrigerator for several days at a temperature of 0ºC (32ºF) and then pressed to produce what is known as "stearine-free" oil. Spermaceti is also recovered from the press residues by re-pressing at a higher temperature[1].
Properties
Spermaceti is white, somewhat translucent, in slightly unctuous masses of a scaly, crystalline fracture and pearly luster, with a very faint odor, and a bland, mild taste. It becomes yellowish and somewhat rancid on long exposure to air.
Since spermaceti has in the past been adulterated with paraffin or other substances, considerable attention has been given by cosmetics and pharmaceutical authorities to the promulgation of suitable standards of physical and chemical constants to define its purity. The present spermaceti of commerce has a specific gravity of 0.938 to 0.944 at 25ºC, and of 0.842 at 100ºC. The refractive index of spermaceti is 1.4397, or almost identical with the cetyl palmitate, its principal constituent. Spermaceti is soluble in hot acetone and alcohol, in carbo tetrachloride, chloroform, ether, naphtha, and turpentine. It has an acid value 2 - 5.2, saponification number 108 - 134, iodine number 4.8 - 5.9, and unsaponifiable 51 - 53.8 per cent[2].
Purity and Uses of Spermaceti
As spermaceti is occasionally adulterated with stearic acid or paraffin, or both, it is often necessary to test it for purity. In medicine, spermaceti is used as a demulcent in irritation of the mucous membrane, but it has no remedial properties. An emulsion of this sort can be made by mixing spermaceti first with half its weight of olive oil, then with powdered gum arabic, and lastly with water. Spermaceti is used chiefly as a base of ointments, cerates, etc. Spermaceti Cerate is made by melting together 10 parts of spermaceti and 35 parts of white beeswax, and then adding 55 parts of warmed olive oil. Spermaceti is used in cosmetics, in the finishing and lustering of linens, in laundry wax, and in special soaps and emulsifying agents.
Spermaceti is used to a limited extent in the manufacture of candles, and a little beeswax or other plastic wax is then added to make candles less crystalline and brittle. It is important to note that spermaceti is the wax used in the candle which defines our unit of candlepower. The standard candle of Great Britain, which was also legalized in the United States, is one which weight one-sixth of a pound and burns 120 grains of spermaceti per hour. In the manufacture of the English standard sperm candle it is prescribed by the Metropolitan Gas Referees in London that the wicks shall be made of three strands of cotton plaited together, each strand consisting of 18 threads. A number of other dimensional details are prescribed, and a careful description of the wax to be used in making the standard candle.