500 BEESWAX AND ITS USES. 
August. The sun-extractor requires no labor from the Apia- 
rist, other than filling it with combs and removing the 
melted wax. 
Fig. 197. (From ‘‘Gleanings.’’) 
SUN-EXTRACTOR. 
864. The dealers in France buy, from the bee-keepers, 
for little or nothing, the residues of their melted combs. 
They dissolve them in turpentine, press the pulp dry, 
and distill the liquid, to separate the turpentine. As the 
wax is not volatile, it remains in the still. It is said that, 
when wax was dearer than it is now, large profits were 
realized by this operation. 
865. To cleanse beeswax from its impurities, we melt it 
carefully with cistern water and pour it into flaring cans 
(wider at the top than at the bottom) containing a little 
boiling water. This wax is kept in the liquid state, ata 
high temperature, for twenty-four hours. During this time, 
the impurities drop to the bottom and can be scraped 
from the cake when cold. Some wax can be obtained 
from this refuse, but some of it is always left in the 
dregs, as is proven by the impossibility of dissolving them 
by exposure. We have lumps of this refuse, as dark as 
ink, which were scattered on our farm, with manure, ten 
years ago, and are just as they were when put in the fields. 
Nothing can destroy beeswax, except fire, or the ravages of 
the bee-moth. Exposure to the weather does not affect it, 
but only bleaches it. 
To prevent the cakes of wax from cracking, it should be 
