1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



539 



" And you speak In earnest?'" 



'"I do/ In that product which you hold at 

 this moment there is not to be found a gramme 

 of beeswax." 



He looked at me smilingly; but noticing my 

 serious looks, together with the positive tone of 

 ray words, he manifested his surprise. 



'• Well, now," said I, "take the pains to smell 

 of that stuff and tell me whether it has the 

 agreeable odor of beeswax." 



•'Why. it is absolutely odorless; but some- 

 times wax loses its odor. I can hardly believe 

 that it is not pure beeswax." 



While he spoke I took from my pocket a sec- 

 ond package, which I soon unfolded before his 

 eyes. "See," said I. "a piece of pure yellow 

 beeswax — genuine wax this time. Compare 

 the two products. The one you are holding is 

 odorless and nearly transparent; the other emits 

 the odor of beeswax, which you know so well, 

 and is quite dull. On the one hand you have a 

 mineral product: on the other, an animal prod- 

 uct. This animal product is pure beeswax 

 which we get in our hives, and which we fur- 

 nish in business, such as you see there. This 

 mineral product is ceresin, or purified ozokerite, 

 of which so much is said now. and which did 

 considerable at first, for which a substitute has 

 been found. The unscrupulous speculator be- 

 gan by mixing with his beeswax, little by little, 

 this stuff: and, emboldened by the success of 

 his speculation, and the greed for gain, at last 

 ended by selling this foreign product, unmixed, 

 for pure beeswax, realizing, for the more beau- 

 tiful product, a profit of UU per cent. Genuine 

 wax has not ceased to fall in price; and from 

 (58 cts., at which it svas sold several years ago, 

 it has actually fallen to 47 cts. in consequence 

 of this fraud. Consumers do just what you 

 have done. They trust to appearances, and buy 

 ceresin for beeswax." 



My friend could hardly believe his ears, which 

 is, however, easily to be understood, for he, like 

 everybody else, was ignoi'ant of these things. 



Let us leave him to his surprise, and talk se- 

 riously. I seem to hear the buzzing of several 

 thousands of voices who put to me the same 

 question: 



" What is ozokerite ? " 



"What is ceresin?" 



To answer briefly, it is necessary to say: 

 Ozokerite is a crude mineral wax. or. rather, a 

 mineral wax that has been subjected to only 

 one melting. Ceresin is mineral wax which has 

 been completely purified — that is. ready for use. 

 Little known at present, although sold in large 

 quantities, it has received at different times the 

 following names: 



Mineral wax; ceresin; cerosin; ozocertine; 

 ozokerite; ozocerite; fossil wax; odoriferous 

 wax; native paraffine; fossil Moldavian wax. 



Several authors and dictionaries have de- 

 scribed it. 



1. It is a carboniferous combustible, belong- 

 ing to the bitumens, which resembles wax: can 

 be kneaded, like wax, and emits an agreeable 

 aromatic odor. 



3. It is a mineral which was discovered at 

 Slanik, in Moldavia, in sandstone, accompanied 

 with lignite and rock-salt. It is found, in this 

 repository, in such abundance that the inhabi- 

 tants use it for lighting purposes. It is, in fact, 

 a combustible composed entirely of carbon and 

 hydrogen— a true carburet of hydrogen. Ozo- 

 kerite resembles beeswax in its consistency and 

 transparency: it possesses, at the same time, a 

 marked aromatic odor. These properties have 

 given it the name of fossil Moldavian wax. 



3. Again, it is a substance composed essen- 

 tially of paraffine, bui-ning with a very brilliant 

 flame, and it is found in sufficient quantities in 

 the bosom of the earth in ^Moldavia, near Slanik 



and Zetriska, which the people melt and run 

 in molds to make wax tapers. 



4. It is a mixture of hydro-carburets, of high 

 molecular weight, of a waxy consistency; of a 

 general brown or greenish cast, a peculiar aro- 

 matic odor, greasy to the touch; is found at 

 Slanik, Vienna, Borislaw in Galicia, and in the 

 coal-pits of Urpeth, near Newcastle, England. 



In short, ozokerite is a substance which is 

 found in the bosom of the earth in Galicia, in 

 Romania, and on the western coast of the Cas- 

 pian Sea. It has received the name of mineral 

 wax on account of its resemblance to beeswax. 

 To extract it, it is necessary to bore wells to get 

 to the place where it is found in strata. These 

 wells can not be made except with extreme cau- 

 tion ; and the men who do this work have time 

 only to escape ; for it nearly always happens 

 that the material, crowded by the gas stored in 

 the mine, rises rapidly, even to the surface of 

 the ground. 



Crude ozokerite, such as is taken from the 

 ground, more nearly resembles the smooth wax 

 with which we are familiar, and, like it, admits 

 of being kneaded ; but it soon becomes hard, 

 and assumes a marbled appearance — sometimes 

 clear yellow, sometimes dark green, and some- 

 times even black. It is only after having been 

 melted and re-melted several times that it looks 

 like beeswax. There exist several varieties of 

 mineral wax, known under the names of rvax, 

 or mountnin f>uet ; fichtelite. hartite. ixolite, 

 koullte, scheeremte. Urpeth ite, and ZetrisiJiite, 

 which are of a greasy nature, sometimes opaque, 

 sometimes transparent, but commonly of a yel- 

 lowish white or a grayish white, and hold, so to 

 speak, a middle place between resins and bitu- 

 mens. How shall we recognize the presence of 

 ceresin in beeswax? It is well known, that it 

 is difficult to analyze pure beeswax. It is even 

 claimed that this operation is impossible ; as 

 witness the Revue InternaUonale, where the 

 following lines may be read : 



•' Wax is but little known ; and even chem- 

 ists like to talk but little about it. Some years 

 ago I received some wax, of which the odor, the 

 specific gravity, and the melting-point, showed 

 adulteration. To be sure of it I applied to the 

 Polytechnic School of Zurich, and asked if they 

 would be willing to put that wax to a quantita- 

 tive and qualificative analysis, in order to as- 

 certain not only what material was used in its 

 adulteration, but also in what proportions, and 

 to enable one to found, on that analysis, a com- 

 plaint before the courts. The answer was no. 

 They declared to me that the state of chemical 

 science would not permit of making any such 

 analysis." 



Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize the 

 presence of mineral wax and paraffine in liees- 

 wax by using the following method : 



Place in a porcelain dish some sulphuric acid. 

 Warm it over some alcohol ; and. in order that 

 the wax may be attacked more violently, scrape 

 it off in shavings as for bleaching. The shav- 

 ings being thin, the beeswax is immediately at- 

 tacked and carbonized by the sulphuric acid, 

 while the mineral wax or parafifine is not af- 

 fected — or. at least, only partially so. After 

 boiling for half a minute it is allowed to cool. 

 The beeswax is in a heap lik(» a carbonized (or 

 charred) sponge, and the ceresine forms a trans- 

 parent film on the surface. If there is a film, 

 there is ceresin or paraffine. If thei'e is only a 

 charred mass, there is no ceresin. 



[Are we to understand from the above that 

 chemists at the present day, in our country, are 

 unable to detect impure wax by chemical anal- 

 ysis? I should like to have Prof. Cook answer 

 it. Some years ago we experimented consider- 

 ably with ceresin: but I believe it is universal- 



