by bgetch.

Letter appeared in the WSJ 12/6/08:

Saving the Whales, Circa 1852

I read with interest the Letter to the Editor about saving whales by Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council (”Protect Whales as the Navy Trains,” Nov. 24), but as I suspect Mr. Reynolds doesn’t know who really first saved the whales, I propose to tell him.

Between 1848 and 1851, a Scottish chemist named James Young recovered petroleum from coal, which occurred in England and when that source was exhausted, went on to recover oil in Scotland, initially from coal similar to that previously exploited and, latterly, from oil shale that occurs in the Midland Valley. Oil was recovered and treated in plants built near the town of Bathgate, located between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In 1852, Young patented certain techniques, some of which, without his permission, were used by refiners in the U.S. Young challenged the unauthorized use of his patented technology and his claims were upheld in U.S. courts. He then traveled to Pennsylvania to collect royalties. In the event, Young — known to friends as “Paraffin” (the British equivalent of kerosene) created what, in the words of one reference, “became the first truly commercial oil-works in the world.”

Overfishing of whales and decreasing supply of whale oil caused the major fuel used in oil lamps to rise very rapidly and this development created the market Young sought to satisfy. In short, if variants of petroleum had not been discovered and developed, whales almost certainly would have gone the way of the woolly mammoth, sabre-toothed tiger and dodo bird: They would be extinct.

The next time someone thinks about saving whales or reflects on the iniquities of “big oil,” I hope he or she will pause to offer a prayer to James Young and those who followed in his footsteps and thereby helped preserve the magnificent “Leviathans of the Deep.”

Paul Gilmour, Ph.D.
Consulting Geologist
Tucson, Ariz.

Posted in whales | Print | No Comments »