SXTRACTING WAX. X67 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

 EXTRACTING WAX. 



279. Use of Wax Extractors. — Wax is so valuable that no 

 careful bec-keepcr will permit the smallest piece of it to be 

 wasted. Clippings of foundation, cappings removed from 

 combs, and old or broken combs, should be collected and 

 rendered, either for sale, or for manufacture into foundation. 

 The light coloured, and the dark coloured wax should be 

 rendered separately, as the former fetches the higher price. 

 As already described, both the Solar Wax Extractor (139) and 

 the Steam Wax Extractor (140) give good results. The combs 

 should be soaked for twenty-four hours in cold water before 

 being rendered. The best coloured wax is obtained by means 

 of extractors ; but a large amount of wax remains in the debris, 

 and, it is only by subjecting it to considerable pressure wdiile 

 hot, that the mass can be made to yield nearly all its wax. 

 This is especially the case when old combs are being dealt 

 with. (See also 404.) 



280. Extracting by Eoiling — A third method of rendering 

 wax may be adopted as follows : — Soak the wax in water for 

 twenty-four hours, as directed (279). Into a canvas bag, or a 

 clean, closely-made sack, put a large stone : throw in also all 

 the wax that is to be melted : and lie the bag tightly. Place 

 the bag in a farm boiler, or a larg'e pot, of rain water, with a 

 piece of wood under the bag to prevent burning. When the 

 water has boiled for a couple of hours (or less in the case of 

 clean, fresh combs), let it cool: and, when cold, remove the 

 cake of wax from the top. Scrape the dirty wax from the 

 bottom of the cake into the bag, and boil it again for two or 

 three hours, when, on cooling-, a cake of inferior wax may be 

 taken off. The first cake should be broken up, and put into 

 an enamelled vessel of hot water, and the vessel set in a pot 

 of boiling water near the fire until the wax melts, after which 

 it can be poured into shapes, and cooled slowly, as before. 

 The colour of the inferior wax may be improved by adding a 

 little vitriol to the water in which it is boiled, in the proportion 

 of three tablespoonfuLs of vitriol to ten gallons of water. 

 Smaller quantities may be wrapped in a piece of cheese cloth 

 and suspended over a vessel of water in the oven. When melted, 

 cooling must be very gradual to avoid cracks. The wax cake 

 may be removed from the vessel of water when cold (404). 



