S84 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



(it's set yet, only more so than before); so, early 

 in April I bought some double-strength glass, 

 cut from broken store- windows, showcases, and 

 such. It cost me ?2.50 at the price of single- 

 strength glass, and made a sash about 2 ft. 10 

 in. X 6 ft. 6 in., and I very soon had a solar wax- 

 extractor at work in the yard. The thing is 

 built on wheels, two at one end and one at the 

 other, one of them being pivoted like a bed- 

 caster. This makes it convenient to pull about. 

 and to wheel into the honey-house to unload 

 and I'eload when robbers are bad. From April 

 to October that extractor has been at work, and 

 has turned out over 300 lbs. of wax and over 

 1000 lbs. of feed honey that was mostly candied 

 in the combs. The wax is No. 1 in quality. 



After accumulating two or three barrels of 

 the refuse I experimented on it. Some was 

 soaked four weeks in water, and cooked by 

 steam applied direct. Some was soaked several 

 days in a mixtureof water and concentrated lye, 

 so strong it was a slick, soapy mass, and it was 

 cooked by steam applied direct, with the mass 

 in a bran-sack. I used steam under pressure, 

 and turned a jet of steam into the center of the 

 mass. I tried first by having a false bottom 

 made of slats about six inches from the bottom 

 of the barrel, and the sack in this, so the wax 

 would drip below and run out at the bottom. 

 This brought out some wax, but left plenty to 

 make a good tire. I then plugged the hole at 

 the bottom of the barrel, and filled the barrel 

 with water, so that the whole mass was sub" 

 merged. I then applied the steam-jet as before 

 — that is. to the center of the mass in the sack. 

 The jet was applied for nearly half a day, with 

 stirring, turning, and prodding the sack. As 

 fast as wax would accumulate on the water it 

 was skimmed off. until it seemed that scarcely 

 a bit could remain in that sack. I tlien took 

 the sack out. At first it contained about four 

 bushels of the slumgum; but now it was reduc- 

 ed by washing out pollen, etc.. until it was 

 about a bushel. I then put it under moderate 

 pressure. This caused the wax to flow " from 

 every pore," resulting in one or two pounds 

 more of wax. I then again put the whole mass 

 into cold water, when the wax appeared in 

 small grains throughout the whole mass, about 

 as butter does just as it begins to gather when 

 being cliurned. I now have a barrel of this ref- 

 use soaking in lye-water, and will experiment 

 to .see what wax can be gotten from it. 



The refuse used in these experiments was the 

 I'esult of rendering over 200 lbs. of wax. using 

 mostly those old combs and hive-scrapings, etc. 

 The result was something over 20 lbs. of wax 

 that was much darker than the first, as gotten 

 by solar heat. lioth because we had to keep 

 the solar extractor going in order to get our 

 comb all rendered, and because we expected to 

 subject the refuse to the second process, it was 

 not as thoroughly drained in the solar as it 

 might have been. Ilowevei', the wax received 

 from it paid about ■■?2.oo a day for the time en- 

 gaged in putting it through the process. 



I am confident that neither the solar nor steam 

 process comes near getting the wax all out. Old 

 combs, pollen-filled, together with dead bees 

 and such, make such a m"ass of refuse that a 

 great amount of wax is retained in it. in spite 

 of all my efforts so far to remove it. I find, how- 

 ever, that we need a large solar extractoi'. and 

 then not load it too heavy. If the refuse be 

 drawn back to the upper end. and spread out 

 thinly on a rather steep incline, ami left there a 

 few days in the hottest weather, and for about 

 four weeks when not so warm, very much wax 

 will eventually be drained out that can not be 

 gotten out in two or three days' time. If the 

 solar extractor be large enough, and the stuff 

 left in it long enough, I think more wax will be 



extracted than by steam or water. The feed 

 honey alone thatcan be obtained by using a solar 

 extractor abundantly pays for the instrument, 

 besides the other points of advantage. But 

 what I want to know is an equally cheap meth- 

 od of getting the rest of that wax out of the 

 slumgum. R. C. Aikin. 



Loveland, Col., Nov. 7, 1892. 



[Your experiments are interesting and valua- 

 ble, and we believe the results at which you ar- 

 rived are correct, as they confirm to a very great 

 extent our own. From old tough and black 

 combs it is exceedingly hard to get the wax all 

 out. The Dadants recommend first pulverizing 

 them during cold freezing weather. At that 

 time, being very brittle, they will work up very 

 fine. Now. then, the best way to render this, so 

 far as we know, is to spread this pulverized 

 comb thinly over the bottom of a large solar 

 wax-extractor. Allow it to stand that way for 

 several days in the hot sun, stirring it occasion- 

 ally in the mean time, so as to present new sur- 

 faces to the sun. After it seems to have drained 

 out all the wax there is in the slumgum. clean 

 out the extractor, put the contents into the 

 slumgum box or barrel, and be sure to cover it 

 tightly, because the moth-worms will very soon 

 begin work on it. After a barrel or so has accu- 

 mulated, put it into a cheese-cloth (or. prefera- 

 bly, burlap) bag, as large as can conveniently be 

 put into a receptacle in which it is to be further 

 treated with hot water slightly acidulated with 

 sulphuric acid. Get the water to boiling, and 

 with a stick punch the sack underwater; and 

 as the wax rises, skim it off on the surface of 

 the water. Last of all. remove the sack with 

 its contents from the boiling water; quickly 

 place it in a press; squeeze it. putting on all the 

 pressure possible, and considerably more wax 

 will ooze out in small pellets. 



The solar wax-extractor will take out perhaps 

 nine-tenths of the wax : but there is yet left 

 that tenth, which must be removed, as far as 

 possible, by the agency of hot water, sulphuric 

 acid, and the wax-press. Even then there is a 

 little left that may be removed by continually 

 working at it. but it is a question whether it is 

 worth the time consumed in doing it. 



a THE RESULT OF THE EXPEBIMEJJT OX THE 

 BOAKDMAN SLTTMGUM. 



Referring to the slumgum of H. R. Boardman, 

 and our challenge to him to send on a couple of 

 bushels and we would prove there was wax it, 

 we have this to say : He '^ent on the slumgum. 

 and by the scales it weighed about 2.") lbs. We 

 put itthi'ough the " mill "—that is. the sulphu- 

 ric- acid treatment — in connection with the wax- 

 press. Well, how much wax do you think we 

 secured? Just one pound! We scarcely know 

 whether Mr. Boardman or ourselves have the 

 better of the argument. He may be surprised 

 that we got so much, and on the other hand we 

 are surely disappointed in getting no more. On 

 this basis we should get about 3 lbs. of virgin 

 wax from perhaps a barrel of Mr. Boardman's 

 slumgum. If there is one thing that we have 

 proven, it is that Mr. Boardman"s lai'ge solar 

 wax-ext)'actors do the work very nuich more 

 thoroughly than we had supposed ; and we 

 can account for the stuff making such good fu- 

 el, only on the ground that it must have con- 

 taineda large amount of propolis, as Mr. Aikin 

 suggests above. It is well known that propolis 

 melts at a much higher temperature than wax, 

 and it is possible that the heat of the solar wax- 

 extractor is not sufficient to have any percepti- 

 ble effect on it. It is. therefore, left nicely dis- 

 tributed through the refuse. 



Some time ago we illustrated the Boardman 

 solar wax-extractor. As many of our old read- 



