536 BEESWAX AND ITS USES. 



I 



smell. There would be but little harm, if the acid (oil of 

 vitriol) was used sparingly, but beginners often use enough 

 in rendering a hundred pounds, to serve for a thousand pounds 

 or more. The only utility of it is in rendering residues of 

 the worst quality in large establishments. 



866. The utmost care is necessary not to spoil wax in 

 melting it. If heated too fast, the steam may disaggregate it. 

 Then its color is lighter, but very dim; the wax having lost 

 its transparency, resembles a cake of corn meal. When it is 

 in this condition, water will run out of it if a small lump 

 is pressed between the fingers. The best way to restore it is 

 to melt it slowly in a solar wax extractor (fig. 229). We 

 have succeeded also by melting it with water, and keeping 

 the water boiling slowly till all the water contained between 

 the particles of wax had evaporated. But this work is te- 

 dious and cannot be accomplished without the greatest care 

 and a skillful hand. Whatever the means used, you may rely 

 on more or less waste.* 



Wax-bleachers draw wax into small ribbons which are 

 exposed to the rays of the sun for several weeks, or melted 

 with chemical acids; but wax-bleaching is beyond the purpose 

 of this book. 



Uses of Wax. 



867. Before the invention of parchment, prepared as a 

 material for writing, from the skins of goats, sheep, calves, 

 etc., tablets covered with a light coat of wax were used. A 

 style— an instrument sharp at one end to engrave characters 

 in the wax, and broad and smooth at the other end to erase 

 them— was used in place of a pen. The Latin poet Horatius, 

 born sixty-five years before Christ, probably used these tab- 

 lets, for, in his admonition to poets, he writes : "Saepe stylwm 



* Whenever beeswax is melted in water, even with the utmost care, 

 some small portions of it are water-damaged and settle to the bottom 

 of the cake with the dregs. This water-damaged beeswax has often 

 been mistaken for pollen residues. 



