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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Brutal_Deluxe_ on 2024-09-23 16:39:30+00:00.

Original Title: TIL whale oil was used in transmissions until its ban in 1972, when less than 1 million transmissions failed each year; without whale oil, yearly transmission failures became more than 8 million by 1975. This led to thousands of transmission shops opening across the USA in the late 1970s and ’80s