Whale oil

Okay, so imagine you're swimming in the ocean and you see a big, gentle giant swimming past you. That's a whale! Whales are really big animals that live in the ocean. A long time ago, people discovered something really useful about whales - they could use their oil.

Whale oil is a type of oil that comes from the blubber of whales. Blubber is like a thick layer of fat that whales have to help keep them warm in the cold ocean water. When people hunted whales a long time ago, they would take the blubber and process it into oil.

Why did people want whale oil? Well, it turns out that it was really useful for things like lighting lamps. Back then, people didn't have electricity like we do today, so they needed other ways to light their homes and streets. Whale oil burned really cleanly and produced a bright light, so it was perfect for lamps.

Whale oil was also used for other things too. Some people used it to make soap or as a lubricant for machines. It was even used in some medicines!

However, hunting whales for their oil turned out to be really bad for the whales. People were killing too many of them, and some whale populations were becoming endangered. That's why we don't use whale oil much anymore. Instead, we have other types of oil and electricity to help us light our homes and power our machines.

So, while whale oil was once a really important resource for people, we've learned that it's better to find other ways to get what we need without harming the environment and endangering animals like whales.