MELTING WAX. 501 
poured into the molds or cans when only 165° Fahr. and 
should be kept in a warm place to cool slowly. 
866. The utmost care is necessary not tospoil wax in melt- 
ing 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. 197). 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 
tedious 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 pur- 
pose 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 alight 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 
tablets, for, in his admonition to poets, he writes: ‘‘Sape 
stylum vertas.—‘‘ turn often your style ;’’ thereby meaning: 
“Carefully correct your writings.’’ 
* Whenever beeswax is melted in water, even with the utmost care, some 
smal) 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. 
