THE 



POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA; 



OK, 



WAX WAX FIGURES. 





WAX is a concrete, unctuous-feeling substance, 

 which partakes of the nature of fixed oil. It is 

 secreted by bees in constructing their hives, and is 

 also, a most abundant vegetable production, enter- 

 ing into the composition of the pollen of flowers, 

 covering the envelope of the plum, and of other 

 fruits, especially of the berry of the myrica cerifera, 

 and, in many instances, forming a kind of varnish to 

 the surface of leaves. It is distinguished from fat 

 and resinous bodies by its not readily forming soaps 

 when treated with alkaline solutions. Common wax 

 is always more or less coloured, and has a distinct, 

 peculiar odour, both of which it may be deprived 

 by exposure, in thin slices, to air, light, and mois- 

 ture, or more speedily by the action of chlorine. 

 The art of bleaching wax consists in increasing its 

 surface ; for which purpose it must be melted, with 

 a degree of heat not sufficient to alter its quality; in 

 a caldron so disposed that the melted wax may 

 flow gradually through a pipe, at the bottom of the 

 caldron, into a large wooden cylinder, that turns 

 continually round its axis, and upon which the 

 melted wax falls. As the surface of this cylinder 

 is always moistened with water, the wax falling 

 upon it does not adhere to it, but quickly becomes 

 solid and flat, and acquires the form of ribands. 

 The continual rotation of the cylinder carries off 

 these ribands as fast as they are formed, and distri- 

 butes them through the tub. When all the wax 

 now to be whitened is thus formed, it is to be put 

 upon large frames covered with linen cloth, which 

 are supported about a foot and a half above the 

 ground, in a situation exposed to the air, the dew, 

 and the sun. If the weather be favourable, the 

 colour will be changed in a few days. It is then to 

 be re-melted, and formed into ribands, and exposed 

 to the action of the air, as before. These opera- 

 tions are to be repeated till the wax is rendered 

 perfectly white, when it is cast into cakes or 

 moulded into candles. At ordinary temperatures, 

 wax is solid and somewhat brittle ; but it may be 

 easily cut with a knife, and the fresh surface pre- 

 sents a characteristic appearance, to which the 

 name of waxy lustre is applied. Its specific gravity 

 is 0-96. At 130 Fahr., it enters into fusion, and 

 boils at a high temperature. Heated to redness in 

 a close vessel, it suffers decomposition, yielding 

 products very similar to those which are procured 

 under the same circumstances from oil. It is insolu- 

 ble in water, and is only dissolved in small quantities 



when treated with boiling ether or alcohol. It 

 unites by the aid of heat, in every proportion, with 

 the fixed oils, the volatile oils, and with resin. With 

 different quantities of oil, it constitutes the simple 

 liniment ointment and cerate of the pharmacopoeia. 

 Wax, according to John, consists of two different sub- 

 stances, one of which is soluble, and the other inso- 

 luble, in alcohol. To the former the name of cerin 

 has been given, and to the latter that of myricin. 

 One hundred parts of wax are composed of 



Carbon 80-4 



Oxygen, -< . . . 8'3 

 Hydrogen, 11-3 



See the article Bee. 



WAX FIGURES. In ancient Greece, wax was 

 used for impressions of seals, for encaustic painting, 

 and for a varnish for marble walls and statues. 

 There was also a distinct class of artists, called 

 puppet-makers by the Greeks, and sigillarii by the 

 Romans, who worked only, or chiefly, in wax. 

 Figures of beautiful boys in wax, often adorned 

 the bed-rooms of the Greeks. The subjects most 

 frequently represented in wax, however, belonged 

 to the vegetable kingdom, being branches, fruits, 

 flowers, wreaths, &c. It was customary to con- 

 struct a little garden of flower-pots and fruit-bas- 

 kets, in every house, in honour of Adonis, at the 

 time of his feast ; but as this was celebrated so early 

 in the year that even in Greece it was difficult to find 

 flowers and fruits, wreaths, cornucopias, fruits, &c. 

 of wax, were used as substitutes. In sorcery, also, 

 wax figures were employed ; and Artemidorus tells 

 us, in his work On Dreams, that waxen wreaths in 

 dreams foreboded sickness and death. The notori- 

 ous Heliogabalus set dishes of wax before his guests, 

 to tantalize them with representations of all the 

 luxuries in which he revelled. At present wax is 

 used for imitations of anatomical preparations, or of 

 fruits ; it also serves the sculptor for his models 

 and studies, also for little portrait figures in basso 

 rilievo. The latter can be executed with delicacy 

 and beauty ; but wax figures of the size of life, 

 which are often praised for their likeness, overstep 

 the proper limit of the fine arts. The attempt to 

 imitate life too closely, which, in contrast with 

 their ghastly fixedness, has a tendency to make us 

 shudder. In the genuine work of art there is an 

 immortal life, in idea, which speaks to our souls 

 without attempting to deceive our senses. (See 

 Copy.) The wax figure seems to address the mor- 



