1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



309 



The article below from the American Bee 

 Journal of Oct., 1867, covers so many impor- 

 tant facts in regard to wax, that I copy it 

 entire : 



WAX. 



This is an organic product of bcth animal and 

 vegetable origin, and occurring even as a mineral, 

 though in this case also, its original source is un- 

 doubtedly vegetable. The common properties of 

 the substances included under this name are fusi- 

 bility at a moderate heat; burning with much flame; 

 insolubility in water, and solubility in alkaline solu- 

 tions, alcohol, and ether; and in most cases a pecul- 

 iar lustre, to which the name of "waxy" has been 

 given. The most important of these substances is 

 beeswax, which was for a long time supposed to be 

 simply collected by the bees from flowers, but has 

 proved by the experiments of Huber and the Hunt- 

 ers, to be secreted by them, it is obtained in the 

 cakes in which it appears in commerce, by boiling 

 the comb from which the honey has been drained or 

 pressed out in water, with frequent stirring, that 

 the wax may not burn. When completely melted, 

 the wax is strained by pressing through hair bags, 

 and received in a vessel of cold water, which serves 

 to cool it and prevent it from sticking. This is re- 

 peated two or three times, the bags increasing in 

 fineness, and the wax is finally melted without wa- 

 ter, and poured into moulds wider at the top than 

 at the bottom, and wetted to prevent sticking. 

 After being filled the moulds are kept in a warm 

 room till the wax has solidified, as otherwise the 

 cakes are apt to crack in the middle. This process 

 is however tedious and somewhat wasteful, and 

 various attempts have been made to find a more ex- 

 peditious one, of which Mr. Bagster's appears the 

 most simple. The combs are placed in a conical 

 earthen vessel filled with a mixture of one ounce of 

 nitric acid to a quart of water. This is set over an 

 open Are till the wax is completely melted, when it 

 is removed from the Are and allowed to cool gradu- 

 ally. The product becomes divided into three lay- 

 ers, the upper one pure wax, the lowest chiefly im- 

 purities, and the middle containing sufficient wax 

 to be worth adding to the next melting. A market- 

 able wax is thus obtained at a single operation, 

 without straining or pressing. Beeswax obtained 

 by either of these processes is yellow; has an agree- 

 able, somewhat aromatic odor, and a slight but pe- 

 culiar taste; is rather soft and unctious, though 

 firm; has a granular fracture, but when cut shows 

 the characteristic waxy lustre; does not adhere to 

 the fingers, or to the teeth when chewed; is render- 

 ed soft and tenacious by a moderate heat; melts at 

 about 142 D F; and has a specific gravity of 0,960 to 

 0,965. 



Wax is often adulterated with earth, meal, rosin, 

 etc. The first two render it brittle and grayish, and 

 may be detected and separated by melting the wax, 

 when the impurities may be strained out. Ilosin 

 makes the fracture smooth and shining instead of 

 granular, and may be dissolved in cold alcohol, 

 while the wax remains untouched. Tallow or suet 

 renders the wax softer, and gives it an unpleasant 

 odor when melted. 



Wax is bleached by causing it, when melted, to 

 pass through a perforated trough upon the surface 

 of revolving wooden cylinders half immersed in wa- 

 ter, ;by which it is formed into films, which are 

 then placed on webs of canvas raised from the 



ground, and exposed to the action of the weather 

 until perfectly white. It is, however, generally nec- 

 essary to repeat the process so as to expose fresh 

 surfaces before the wax can be completely bleach- 

 ed; and care must be taken to finally remove the 

 wax from the webs of canvas only in dry weather, 

 as if it is done in damp weather, it retains a grayish 

 tint, which much impairs its value. The films are 

 finally melted and cast into thin circular cakes, 

 known commercially as "virgin wax." When 

 bleached by means of chlorine or its compounds, 

 the color is destroyed, but the wax is rendered unfit 

 for many purposes, and especially for candles. 

 Another method of bleaching is to add one pound of 

 melted wax, two ounces pulverized nitrate of soda, 

 and stir in by degrees a mixture of one ounce sul- 

 phuric acid and nine ounces of water. When all the 

 acid is added, it is allowed to partially cool, and the 

 vessel is then filled up with boiling water, to remove 

 the sulphate of soda and acid; it is then quite white, 

 translucent in thin slices, shining, harder and less 

 unctious than the yellow, without taste or smell; 

 becomes soft enough to be kneaded at 85° to 95° F., 

 and fuses at 150° to 155° F., though it will remain 

 liquid at a somewhat lower temperature; by great 

 heat it is partially volatilized and partly decompos- 

 ed, the vapor burning with a clear bright flame; it 

 is insoluble in water, but slightly soluble in boiling 

 alcohol and ether, which deposit most of it on cool- 

 ing; easily so in the essential and fixed oils; and 

 can readily be combined with rosin by fusion. It is 

 very frequently adulterated with spermaceti, which 

 destroyes its peculiar lustre and renders it softer 

 and more fusible; it is also adulterated with stea- 

 rine, which may be detected by the odor of fat or 

 tallow evolved when the wax is highly heated, and 

 by the crumbly texture which it imparts. 



White wax is composed of two principal sub- 

 stances: myricine, which is grayish white without 

 crystaline texture, fusible at 127° F., and almost in- 

 soluble in boiling alcohol; and cerine or cerotic acid, 

 which crystalizes when pure, in delicate needle-like 

 crystals, fuses at 172° F., is much more soluble, con- 

 stitutes about twenty-two per cent of the entire 

 weight of the wax, and has for its formula C 54, H 

 54, O 4. Wax also contains four or five per cent of a 

 substance called ceroleine, which is soft, very solu- 

 ble in cold alcohol and ether, and melts at 83° F.; 

 and by dry distillation, and by the action of acids 

 and alkalies on cerene and myricine, a large num- 

 ber of peculiar organic compounds may be derived 

 from it. A specimen of beeswax from Ceylon was 

 found by Mr. Brodie to consist almost exclusively of 

 myricine. 



Beeswax, though produced in almost every coun- 

 try in the temperate and tropic zones, is an article 

 of foreign commerce in comparatively few. The 

 European supply r is princi pally derived from the 

 Baltic, the Levant, Africa, India, and the United 

 States. The Portuguese province of Angola, in Af- 

 rica, annually sends to Europe about 1,500,000 arro- 

 bas or 47,772,000 lbs. Japan also exports much. In 

 the TJuited States it has long been an important 

 article of production and export. The census of 

 1840 gives the value of the product at $628,303, which 

 would be about 2,000,000 lbs.; that for 1850 states the 

 value of wax and honey to have been 14,853,790 lbs., 

 worth $2,736,606; and that for I860 gives 1,357,864 lbs. 

 of wax alone. The exports in 1859-60 were 362,474 

 lbs., worth $131,803. In 1861, 238,653 lbs. were export- 

 ed from New York. In 1860 more than five-sixths of 



