RECIPE FOR TRANSPARENT WAX. 65 



your coblers wax. Some is too hard and brittle ; 

 some too soft. The former must be put into a 

 small pipkin and heated, mixing with it a very 

 small portion of tallow, or pomatum ; the relative 

 quantity of which must of course depend on cir- 

 cumstances, and be learnt by the experience of an 

 hour's experiment. If it be too soft, simmer it in 

 a pipkin, adding a little powdered resin, till it 

 becomes sufficiently tenacious. When you have 

 the convenience (and weather of moderate tempe- 

 rature) you may make wax which is perfectly 

 transparent by the following method, borrowed, 

 with a slight variation, from Mr. Shipley's book, 

 p. 1278. 



Recipe for Transparent Wax. 



Put two ounces of the best and lightest co- 

 loured yellow resin, and one drachm of bees' wax, 

 into a pipkin over a slow fire ; when dissolved, 

 simmer them for ten minutes longer; then add 

 two and a half (Mr. S. says only two) drachms of 

 white pomatum, and allow the whole to simmer a 

 quarter of an hour longer, constantly stirring it ; 

 pour the liquid into a basin of clean cold water, 

 and it will assume a thick, transparent con- 

 sistency; while yet warm, knead it by pulling 

 it very much through the fingers till cold; the 

 last operation giving it toughness, and that 



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