share with the class what you learned about historical lube for sacred vapour?
So much!
So I already knew about using various oils in ancient civilizations, but Sacred Vapour is set in the 20s, so people have moved on from oil but we still didn't have widely commercial lube as we would maybe recognise it.
The unfortunate thing is that 1920s lube is just not very sexy to write about. The most popular choices were Crisco, KY Jelly and Vaseline.
Crisco is essentially shortening (or lard, if you're in the UK) which just makes me think of making pastries with my grandma.
KY Jelly was intended for use as a lube, but originally as a surgical aid (a sterile version became available in 1917 for general purchase because so many people were using it for... Ahem... Not Surgery), and I think is still available today? But it lost popularity due to the potential to cause infertility. I didn't read too much into that, but I'm sure there's lots of information out there.
Vaseline (or petroleum jelly, which is what I ultimately went for) has been around since the late 1800s and does the job. This was still a very unsexy choice to me. Vaseline conjurs up images of the old plastic pots it would come in, with congealed goop around the rim. But let's all just imagine Gee kept his Vaseline clean and tidy.
Of course, these are all very Western, because that's where the story took place. But I did also read about carrageenan, a substance made by boiling red seaweed, which has been used in countries like Korea, Japan and China for eons (and is still used in commercial lubes today!); and also a Japanese lube made by boiling yams (not a thing anymore, but used often during the edo-period).
Ultimately, reading about historical lube ended up being a fun little distraction and I recommend it if you're ever after an internet rabbit hole to fall down.
