Richmond B. Funkenhouser said:
What kind of oil is used?
Used motor?
I do like the ropes though.
I'm curious as well. Thought I read or watched something about them using olive oil. Something might've changed though
Hey, this is a very traditional firm we're talking about, using very traditional methods: Motor cars, and even the sump drainings from the same, would have been a relative rarity in Kendal until after the Great War. Too modern by far. It could be argued with some credibility, however, that the oil from stationary steam engines is employed in the process, as steam power had ceased to be a novelty by the early years of the 18thC.
Even so, such machines would originally have been lubricated with whale oil, which today is an amazingly expensive product. Claims of rancidity may possibly be attributable to G&H substituting mineral oil, which would probably indicate that the offending twist had been stored no longer than somewhen around the end of the 19thC, when mineral oil became the cheaper machine lubricant. Real connoisseurs will no doubt be able to tell the subtle differences between the two kinds of sump oil used, in blindfold tests (this needs further research).
I cannot imagine thrifty Northerners (I am one) going to the expense of importing olive oil. In my childhood in Lancashire in the 1960s, olive oil was generally only available in small quantities from chemists' shops, for medical purposes. Mutton fat, beef dripping or butter were the preferred lubricants - and that was when we hadn't been at war with France and Spain for a century and a half. Since the Treaty of Vienna, we had slowly learned once more what an olive was, but only ever used the little green ones for some reason, to impale on sticks in Martinis and the like. That was considered the acme of sophistication.
Seriously, though, animal fats are clearly not part of the recipe, either. It is my belief that the firing, steaming and twisting processes release essential oils from the tobacco itself. Maybe with a bit of machine oil casing too. But whatever it is, I love the stuff.