(Not what you think)

The key to writing success: marry someone with JSTOR access. Tonight, I read John Muendel's Friction and Lubrication in Medieval Europe: The Emergence of Olive Oil as a Superior Agent, and found it most salutary. It contains the following fabulous scene, which may find its way into the book:

In 1603 the tower clock of Winterthur, Switzerland, was dismantled and cleaned by burning the animal fat on its gears and pivots; townspeople danced around the ascending flames.

This was much more successful than a Google search for [olive oil lubricant], which went exactly where you think.