ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



119 



Mr. Barkemeier — I had some black 

 wax, and I put five cents worth of sul- 

 phuric acid in it, and it was not yel- 

 low enough; then I boiled it again, and 

 put ten cents worth in, and it was yel- 

 low. 



Mr. Holtermann — Is this thing called 

 clarifying not really a failure? 



Mr. Dadant — That is what It is; you 

 can get black wax clear, but it will be 

 black wax; it won't be white. You 

 can have wax that is almost white, but 

 have it cloudy, so when you take the 

 ifoundation up you can hardly see 

 through it; Dr. Miller knows something 

 about that; but by heating it to a cer- 

 tain temperature and keeping it there, 

 it will be so clear that you can see 

 right through it. It will not be pretty 

 wax. You can hardly make nice wax 

 out of wax that has once been ruined; 

 you can clarify it to some extent. 



Br. Bohrer— What effect would it 

 have, passing it through a solar ex- 

 tractor, towards bleaching it? Has 

 any one ever tried it? As far as I have 

 observed, when I have passed wax 

 through a solar extractor, it has a 

 tendency to get whiter; but, really, I 

 have had no very black wax. 



Mr. Badant — If wax originally was 

 light-colored, and not been broken too 

 much, it can be bleached back. I have 

 heard my . father say that bleachers 

 would rather get this grade of wax 

 than the Mississippi red wax; you 

 can't bleach that so it will be white; 

 you can lighten it. 



Br. Bohrer— What effect would it 

 have, passing it through a solar ex- 

 tractor towards bleaching it, was my 

 question? I would like to hear from 

 some one else who has had experience ^ 

 with it. 



Mr. Badant— If the original grain or 

 light color has not been ruined too far, 

 it will lighten it up. You can't get it 

 as nice, though. 



Mr. Trickfey — As to the Doctor's 

 question, as to how to bleach wax, or 

 whether it would bleach it to put it 

 through a solar extractor, il tried that 

 once and got a lot of it into thin 

 sheets and exposed it to the rays of 

 the sun, where it would not be too hot, 

 and that will bleach it white without 

 any acid or anything else. From my 

 observation, putting it through a solar 

 extractor — the biggest effect it has on 

 it is that it separates the dirt from the 



wax without changing the color to ajiy 

 great extent. 



Mr. Dadant — Mr. Trickey's wax is 

 from the West, where he has alfalfa; 

 that from alfalfa is light grain; never 

 is anything else. When it is not light 

 grain, it is spoiled in rendering. His 

 wax went back to its natural color; 

 but you take the red wax, from the 

 Mississippi bottoms, and you can't 

 change that to any appreciable extent, 

 and the bleachers won't pay by three 

 or four cents per pound as much for 

 that as light-grained wax. I mean 

 that from the Mississippi Valley, and 

 around there. 



IMr. Trickey — As to our wax being 

 light-colored, and having been spoiled 

 by the rendering of it: The dark wax 

 will bleach white as well as the other, 

 under the sun, but it is a very tedious 

 operation, 



Br. Miller — Might I ask Mr. Trickey 

 whether in bleaching the wax it is not 

 hardened at the same time? 



Mr. Trickey — ^Well, I hardly think so, 

 under the sun. I didn't experiment 

 with it very much, because I concluded 

 it was more expense and work than I 

 cared to undertake, so I didn't test it 

 very thoroughly. 



Br. Miller — If you have a foundation 

 exposed — for instance, lying on the 

 table in a room where there is no 

 direct sunlight upon it — it would 

 bleach there in time, but I know it 

 hardens at the same time, and, I sup- 

 pose, bleaching in the sun it would 

 harden also there. 



Mr. Wilcox — 'If it would not be 

 foreign to the question under discus- 

 sion >1 would like to ask what causes 

 wax to be soft? I have bought founda- 

 tion from an Illinois manufacturer that 

 was so soft I could not use it; it would 

 straighten all out of shape (not Mr. 

 Badant's). 



Mr. Dadant — Of course there are dif- 

 ferent ways of making foundation. 

 You would have to know how to purify 

 your wax; get your wax the right 

 temperature when you are making 

 foundation, or there will be trouble. 

 We can make a foundation that will 

 pull right apart; and we can make it 

 where it is so tough you can hardly 

 pull it apart. 



Mr. Anderson — Can you make foun- 

 dation that doesn't need wiring? 

 Make it heavy enough? 



Mr. Holtermann — Some ten years ago 

 I had some comb foundation, from a 



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