MKLTING WAX. 501 



poured into the molds or cans when only 165° Fahr. and 

 should be kept in a w.arin plat'c to cool slowly. 



866. The utmost care is necessary not to spoil 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 lingers. 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 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 

 tablets, for, in his admonition to poets, he writes : "SoejJi 

 stylum vertas. — "turn often your style ;" thereby meaning: 

 "Carefully correct your writings." 



» Whenever beeswax is melted iu water, even with the utmost care, some 

 smal] portions of it are water-damaged and settle to the hottom of the cake 

 with the dregs. This water-damaged beeswax has often been mistaken for 

 poUen residues. 



