ArchaicArcane

And the upside is that the protection smells good, rather than,... uh.. say rotten cabbage.

oldsewnsew

synthetic has different meanings to people. We may be thinking "man made molecules" but they are all derived from other materials, mineral, vegetable, hydrocarbon, etc. So much of what is 'synthetic" oil is petroleum based from oil, and then extremely modified by distilling, filtering, heating, recombining etc. But still based from oil. And then there are type 4 (I think) synthetic oils derived from natural gas. But most of it all just starts out as oil. Even petroleum distillates are found in some white vinegar, or baby oil/min. eral oil, or petroleum jelly that we stick on out bodies is derived from petroleum oil. A little off topic, sorry. Now the next technology is nano-lubricant particles, which are extremely small, and may have a downside effect of being able to readily move into our skin, water and environment.

Cecilia S.

Oldsewnew, that is not off-topic at all! It is totally fascinating, and relevant! The point is to know and understand what we are using for a given purpose. Absolutely relevant, everything you wrote.

I'd be interested to hear more about the nano-lubricant particles; in what sort of products are these found?

miriam

I say ditto...

SteveH

in this research I found that most american ATF (Automatic transmission Fluid) was sperm oil (liquid wax) with red dye up to the 30's.... i bet that got hot... interesting smell that would be..

J Miller

So was the General Motors positraction oil up to the late 60s at least. When I changed out the rear end oil on my Grand moms 68 Impala that stuff stunk BAD. I about gagged.

Joe