46 



THE AMERICAIS^ MONTHLY 



[March, 



How to Make the New Wax-cell. 



BY F. M. HAMLIN, M. D. 



So far as it lias come to my 

 knowledge the wax-cell, which has 

 so suddenly come into favor, has 

 been made by punches which cut 

 a ring of the desired size out of 

 sheet-wax. I have tried a plan of 

 making these cells which works 

 very successfully, and in some res- 

 pects has advantages over any pro- 

 cess of punching them out that I 

 have yet seen. All the apparatus 

 I require is a turn-table and a pen- 

 knife. Having decided upon the 

 size of the cell to be made, I take 

 sheet-wax, such as is used in making 

 artificial flowers, and press together 

 sheets enough to make a cell of the 

 required thickness, and then cut out 

 a square piece a little larger than 

 the desired cell, or, what is much 

 better, take an ordinary gun-wad 

 punch, large enough for the outer 

 diameter of the cell. Placing the 

 slide upon the turn-table, I put the 

 square piece just cut out, or the 

 circular piece cut by the punch, 

 upon the slide and carefully center 

 it. Having made sure that the 

 piece of wax is correctly centered, 

 I press the outer edge down firmly 

 upon the glass with my thumb or 

 fingers. Having determined the 

 exact size of the cell, I turn the 

 slide very slowly and take my knife, 

 with the blade slightly moistened, 

 and hold it so that the point will cut 

 from the upper surface of the wax 

 downward and outward. I make 

 a very slight mark at first, in order 

 to see if I have the size of the cell 

 correct, and then, turning slowly, I 

 gradually press the point of the 

 knife down upon the glass. This 

 manner of holding the knife seems 

 to cause it to serve as a wedge, for 

 the outer shaving of wax is gene- 

 rally thrown up and entirely off 

 from the glass. If a circular piece 



from a punch is used, its outer 

 edge should be trimmed off to 

 make it perfectly circular, the pres- 

 sure of the fingers being likely to 

 distort it somewhat. Any super- 

 fluous wax that may remain may 

 be removed by means of a bit of 

 cloth held over the end of the fin- 

 ger or on a stick. 



The next operation is to cut out 

 the centre, and this is done in the 

 same way, only that the knife is 

 held so as to cut from the top of 

 the wax downward and inward, to- 

 ward the centre of the cell, so that 

 the bottom of the wax-ring shall 

 be wider than the top, which should 

 be about one-tenth of an inch in 

 width. Again I turn slowly, and 

 as the point of the knife goes down 

 it throws up the different thick- 

 nesses of wax till the last is reached, 

 which it removes, leaving the glass 

 inside the ring almost perfectly 

 clean, unless too much pressure has 

 been used in fastening the wax to 

 the slide. If any wax adheres to 

 the glass it is easily removed in the 

 same manner as before. 



If it is desired to make up a lot 

 of cells at one time, but not to re- 

 tain them upon the slides, the cells 

 can be easily removed by drawing 

 a thin-bladed knife under them 

 pressed firmly against the glass. 

 The cells loosen readily unless 

 pressed down too hard in the begin- 

 ning. The pressure in fastening 

 the wax at first, should be more or 

 less according as they are to be re- 

 moved or not. If a partly-finished 

 cell gets loose, I put it in place 

 again and apply pressure by placing 

 a flat piece of wood upon it, or a 

 glass slide with a paper cover ; for, 

 if two glass surfaces are applied, it 

 is as likely to adhere to one as to 

 the other. This will be the best 

 way to fasten a ready-made cell at 

 any time. The pressure should be 

 made directly over the centre of 



