Grease for Strength

Yesterday morning, while tearing through the Stanford Faculty Club's equivalent of a Denny's Grand Slam (sans flapjacks, alas), we recalled how Americans were asked to collect their bacon drippings during World War II. We always assumed that this grease was then converted into fuel. But, boy, were we wrong—as the friendly Disney characters explain in the propaganda film above, that hog fat was a key ingredient in the production of glycerin, which in turn was integral to manufacturing...