Terms+for+Moby+Dick


 * TERMINOLOGY FOR MOBY DICK

CETACEANS** Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are fascinating to many people. It may be because of their size or because of their activities that can seem so playful or because of the attention that has been focused on human threats to these animals. The whales, dolphins, and porpoises are in an order known as cetaceans. These creatures of the sea are mammals just like humans. They breath air. They are warmblooded. They bear live young called calves which are nursed by their mothers.

There are currently seven species of cetaceans in U.S. waters that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. They are the blue whale, the bowhead whale, the fin whale, the humpback whale, the northern light whale, the sei whale and the sperm whale. All seven species are listed as endangered.

These whales became endangered because they were hunted so heavily that the populations were severely reduced. During the 19th century, whales were hunted primarily for oil and baleen. Before the advent of electricity, many American homes were lighted with whale oil. As recently as twenty years ago, products from whales were used for everything from machine oil to women's cosmetics. Because of the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, it became illegal to import products containing materials from whales.

Two species of whales may show the opposite extremes of what may happen in the future. Both the gray whale off of our west coast and the right whale off of our east coast were hunted to the verge of extinction. The grey whale may be the symbol of hope. The population has now recovered and has been removed from the list of endangered species. On the other hand, the right whale population, despite being protected from hunting for over fifty years, numbers less than 400 animals. Even in the best of circumstances, it may take a hundred years for the right whale population to recover. Humans still present a problem for the slow moving right whale, as one of the major causes of death for this species is collisions with ships.

St. Elmo's fire is an electro-luminescent corona discharge caused by the ionization of the air during thunderstorms inside of a strong electric field. Although referred to as "fire", St. Elmo's fire is in fact a low density, relatively low temperature plasma caused by massive atmospheric electrical potential differences that exceed the dielectric breakdown value of air at around 3 megavolts per meter. St. Elmo's fire is named after Erasmus of Formiae (also called St. Elmo), the patron saint of sailors (who sometimes held its appearance to be auspicious.
 * ST. ELMO'S FIRE**

Physically, St. Elmo's fire is a bright blue-white glow, appearing like fire in some circumstances, often in double or triple jets, from tall, sharply pointed structures such as masts, spires and chimneys, and on aircraft wings.

It is named such because the phenomenon commonly occurs at the mastheads of ships during thunderstorms at sea, and St. Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. Benjamin Franklin correctly observed in 1749 that it is electric in nature. It is said that St. Elmo's fire can also appear from the tips of cattle horns during a thunderstorm, or sharp objects in the middle of a tornado,but is not the same phenomenon as ball lightning, although they are possibly related.

References to St. Elmo's fire, often known as "corposants" or "corpusants" from the Spanish Cuerpos Santos (Holy Bodies), can be found in the works of Julius Caesar (De Bello Africo,47), Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia, book 2, par. 101), Herman Melville, and Antonio Pigafetta's journal of his voyage with Ferdinand Magellan.

"'Look aloft!!' cried Starbuck. 'The corpusants! The corpusants!' All the yard-arms were tipped with a pallid fire; and touched at each tri-pointed lightning-rod-end with three tapering white flames, each of the three tall masts were silently burning in the sulphurous air, like three gigantic wax tapers before an altar." – Herman Melville, Moby Dick.

Ambergris occurs as a biliary concretion in the intestines of the sperm whale, and can be found floating upon the sea, on the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast. Ambergris can be found in the Atlantic Ocean; on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar; also on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, mainland China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Molucca islands. However, most commercially collected ambergris came from the Bahama Islands, Providence Island, etc. It is also sometimes found in the abdomens of whales.
 * AMBERGRIS**

Ambergris is found in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from 1⁄2 oz (14 g) to 100 or more pounds (45 or more kg). When initially expelled by the whale or removed from it, the fatty precursor of ambergris is pale white in colour (sometimes streaked with black), soft in consistency, with a strong fecal smell. Following months to years of photo-degradation and oxidation in the ocean, this precursor gradually hardens, developing a dark grey or black colour, a crusty and waxy texture, and a peculiar odour that is at once sweet, earthy, marine, and animalic.

Historically, the primary commercial use of ambergris has been in fragrance chemistry, although it has also been used for medicinal and flavoring purposes. Ambergris is one of the most important amber type odorants and is highly sought. However, it is difficult to get a consistent and reliable supply of high quality ambergris. Due to demand for ambergris and its high price, replacement compounds have been sought out by the fragrance industry and chemically synthesized.

Depending on its quality, raw ambergris fetches approximately USD$20 per gram. In the United States, possession of any part of an endangered species — including ambergris that has washed ashore — is a violation of the Endangered Species Act of 1978.


 * Chapter ninety-one of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick relates the extraction of ambergris from a dead sperm whale. In the next chapter, the narrator, Ishmael, in his typically associative, semi-scientific manner, discusses ambergris and its properties.

Whale oil was one of he finest illuminating oils available in the 18th and early 19th century.


 * ILLUMINATING OIL** — It burned slowly, brightly and cleanly, without being dangerously volatile. The cost of its production made it a premium product, compared to other oils like vegetable oils, lard oils or camphene (refined turpentine). By the end of the 19th century, gas was available in many towns and villages, while Kerosene, distilled from petroleum, became the lamp oil of choice for rural America.


 * SPERMICETTI** —The sperm whale had a special area in his head that contained a cloudy white waxy substance called spermaceti, which was used to produce some of the finest candles available. Due to the costs of processing the spermaceti, these candles were more expensive than most others.


 * LUBRICATING OIL** —Whale oil was refined into fine lubricating oils for special industries like clock-making. The oil of the blackfish, a small toothed whale, was highly prized for lubricating fine machinery. The oil remains fluid at the coldest temperatures and was used to lubricate the chronometers of the Arctic fleets.


 * BALEEN** — Baleen whales had no teeth, but long bony strips that strained the ocean for small creatures that were his diet. Once the baleen was removed from the jaw it had to be carefully cleaned. If it was not cleaned properly it developed a fishy smell that was impossible to remove and lowered the value of the bone

Baleen was used in a multitude of products in the 19th century including corset stays, buggy whips, fishing poles and umbrella ribs, any instance where we would now use plastic or spring steel. In the 1840’s, the price of whalebone rose dramatically in response to the newest women’s fashions, which dictated full skirts held up with bone stays.

Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized fat found under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians. It covers the whole body, except for the appendages, loosely attached to the musculature. It can comprise up to 50% of the body mass of some marine mammals during some points in their lives. Blubber serves several different functions; it is the primary area of fat on marine mammals, and essential for storing energy. It is particularly important for species (such as the Humpback Whale) which feed and breed in different parts of the ocean. During these periods the species are operating on a fat-based metabolism.
 * BLUBBER**

One of the major reasons for the whaling trade was the collection of whale blubber. This was rendered down into oil in giant cauldrons or later, in vats on factory ships.