ON BLEACHINC VEGETAELE WAX. 
223 
ART. XLVI.-ON BLEACHING VEGETABLE WAX. 
By Mr. E. Solly. 
Mr. S. has made a series of experiments on the best 
method of bleaching vegetable wax, the green color of which 
is very difficult of destruction, and of course a considerable 
objection to its use in the manufacture of candles. On trying 
most of the methods usually described as being fitted for the 
purpose, he found them all more or less objectionable, or in- 
applicable on a large scale. Some were tedious, requiring a 
long time for their completion, others expensive, whilst 
others, again, were inconvenient, from the difficulty with 
which the materials employed in bleaching were separated 
from the bleached wax. The author found the best effects 
were produced by chlorine ; but in this case it was necessary 
that the materials used to evolve the gas should be intimately 
mixed with the wax, and then of course the difficulty of sepa- 
rating the residue occurred, and when a stream of chlorine 
was slowly passed over the wax, the process was very slow 
and tedious. He subsequently found that strong nitric acid 
was a very powerful decolorising agent, and it possessed the 
advantage of leaving no residue which was at all difficult of 
separation ; the expense of this process was, however, a great 
objection to its use. The following method was ultimately 
employed. 
The wax was melted, a small quantity of sulphuric acid was 
poured in, composed of one part oil of vitriol to two of water, 
and then a few crystals of nitrate of soda were stirred in ; 
the whole was agitated with a wooden stirrer, and kept heated. 
Nitric acid was thus evolved in considerable quantity and 
purity from a large surface, and in such a manner that all the 
acid evolved must necessarily pass through the melted wax. 
This method answered the purpose very completely ; the 
process was cheap and rapid, and the residuum being merely a 
