78 THE PRODUCTION AND TRADE IN BEES'-WAX. 



1860. 1859. 



£ s. £ s. £ s. £ s. 



American 8 15 to 10 8 15 to 9 



„ white fine... 10 to 10 19 10 to 10 10 



Jamaica 8 12 to 9 7 9 to 9 10 



Gambia 9 8 15 



Mogadore 6 6 to 7 10 6 to 7 10 



East India 7 10 to 9 7 to 8 10 



„ bleached... 9 to 10 10 9 to 10 



The yellow wax, used in this country, comes principally from West 

 Africa, the United States, and Russia. Upper Egypt also produces large 

 quantities, and we import large quantities from India and ^Northern Africa. 

 That which is very white, clear, transparent, hard, brittle, tasteless, and 

 not sticking to the teeth, when chewed, is reckoned the best. In Russia 

 and America there is sometimes found, in the trunks of old trees, a sort of 

 black wax, in round bits, of the size of nutmeg. This is produced by a 

 small kind of bee, and when heated has a smell like balm. The Americans 

 make candles of it. Fresh wax has a peculiar honey-like odour ; its specific 

 gravity is "96. At 150 degrees it fuses, and at a high temperature vola- 

 tilizes, and burns with a bright white flame. 



There are two kinds of wax found in commerce — yellow, or unbleached, 

 and white, or purified and bleached. The bleaching of wax is effected by 

 exposing it in thin lamina3 to the action of the light and air, by which it 

 becomes perfectly white, scentless, harder, and less greasy to the touch. 

 To accomplish this, it is first broken into small pieces and melted in a 

 copper cauldron, with water just sufficient to prevent the wax from burn- 

 ing. The cauldron has a pipe at the bottom through which the wax, when 

 melted, is run off into a large tub filled with water, and • covered with a 

 thick cloth to preserve the heat till the impurities are settled. From this 

 tub the clear melted wax flows into a vessel having the bottom full of small 

 holes, through which it runs in streams upon a cylinder, kept constantly 

 revolving over water, into which it occasionally dips. By this the wax is 

 cooled, and at the same time drawn out into thin sheets, shreds, or ribands 

 by the continual rotation of the cylinder, which distributes them through 

 the tub. The wax thus granulated or flatted is exposed to the air on linen 

 cloths, stretched on large franies, about a foot or two above the ground ; 

 in which situation it remains for several days and nights, exposed to the 

 air and sun, being occasionally watered and turned ; by this process the 

 yellow colour nearly disappears. In this half-bleached state it is heaped 

 up in a solid mass, and remains for a month or six weeks, after which it is 

 re-melted, ribanded, and bleached as before — in some cases, several times 

 — till it wholly loses its colour and smell. It is then again melted for the 

 last time, and cast with a ladle upon a table covered over with little round 

 cavities, into the form of discs or cakes of about five inches in diameter. 

 The moulds are first wetted with cold water, that the wax may be the more 



