634 
covered with nets to prevent the wind from blow- 
ing it away. Being watered continually, it soon 
becomes white. Ifthe blanching does not go on 
well, the wax is remelted and again run upon 
the cylinders. The sunbeams are so indispensa- 
ble to blanching wax, that it will not keep its 
colour if blanched under rain, which also makes 
it lose a portion ofits weight. On the Continent, 
either alum or bitartrate of potash is incorpo- 
rated with the wax in the first melting. At Le 
Mans, where the best wax candles are made in 
France, great attention is paid to the process of 
blanching. When the ribbons are completely 
white, the wax is melted, strained through silk 
sieves, and run into their circular discs. White 
wax purified, when in thin plates, besides its de- 
licate whiteness, is translucent, but not so much 
so as spermaceti. Candles made ofthe latter are 
called in France bougie diaphane, or diaphanous 
candle, whilst the wax light is termed simply 
bougie, to distinguish it from chandelle, which 
signifies a candle made of tallow. In Paris, and 
many other towns in France, all the wax candles 
sold are termed bougies du Mans, from the cir- 
cumstance of Le Mans being celebrated for its 
wax lights; though the real bougie du Mans 
brings a higher price than any other, on account 
| of the brilliancy of its light, which never requires 
the aid of snuffers. Attempts have been made 
to bleach wax with chlorine, also with the chlo- 
rinated alkalies, soda, potash, and lime; but such 
attempts have been unattended with success, 
because all those bleaching preparations render 
the wax brittle, and impair its property of yield- 
ing light. The average specific gravity of pure 
white wax is 0:962, taking water at 1:000. It 
melts at 155° Fahreinheit; but it becomes soft 
and plastic for the purposes of the arts at 86°. 
At the freezing point, 32° Fahrenheit, it is hard, 
and as brittle as black resin. 
Vegetable wax exists ready formed in several 
trees, in the juice of some plants, in the pollen of 
many flowers, in the skin of plums and other 
fruits, and is a constituent of the green fecula of 
several plants, especially the cabbage. It also 
forms a varnish upon the upper surface of the 
leaves of many trees; it may be found in the 
juice of the cow-tree, and upon the stem of the 
violet variety of the sugar-cane; and it abounds 
in the bark of the Ceroxzylon andicola, and in the 
berries of the Myrica cerifera, the Myrica caroli- 
nensis, the Myrica latifolia, and the Myrica angus- 
tifolia. There is also a tree common on the Mala- 
bar coast, and scarcely known in England, which 
yields immense quantities of a beautiful light 
green wax, easily blanched, and producing a 
splendid light; and, under proper cultivation, 
this wax might form a lucrative branch of trade, 
and very much improve our candle manufacto- 
ries, now greatly dependent upon the north of 
Kurope for their supply of tallow. 
Vegetable wax is composed of the same prin- 
ciples as the wax of bees, but is generally of 
WAX. 
greater specific gravity, from possessing a larger 
portion of myricin; and this is perhaps the rea- 
son why nature makes the insect elaborate and 
not collect it,—the wax for the honeycomb no 
doubt requiring an excess of cerin, whilst that for 
vegetable purposes is more effective with a lar- 
ger proportion of myricin. All the chief kinds of 
vegetable wax, however, differ somewhat widely 
from one another, both in some of their outward 
properties and in the processes by which they 
are separated from the plants and converted into 
use. The wax of the Ceroxylon andicola, or cera 
de palma, abounds most on the central cordillera 
of New Grenada, and is separated in its crudest 
state from the tree by scraping the bark. The 
scrapings are boiled in water; the wax swims in 
a softened though unmelted state on the top; 
the impurities fallto the bottom; and the puri- 
fied wax is formed into balls and set to dry in 
the sun. It is with this substance, to which how- 
ever a small quantity of fat is often added to 
render it less brittle, that the loaves of wax and 
the candles of the country are formed. After it 
has been melted, the cera de palma is of a deep 
yellow colour, slightly translucid, as brittle as 
resin, and presenting a waxy fracture well cha- 
racterised. Its melting point is a little above 
that of boiling water. Boiling alcohol dissolves 
it readily, and in cooling the solution sets into a 
gelatinous mass. ther dissolves it, as do also 
the alkalies. The wax of the Myrica cerifera, is 
procured by boiling the fruit in water. The tree 
is extremely common in Louisiana and the tem- 
perate regions of the Andes. ‘The fruit yields as 
much as 25 per cent. of wax; and a single shrub 
will yield from 24 lbs, to 30 lbs. of berries per an- 
num. The crude wax is green and brittle ; and, 
in order to be made into candles, requires the ad- | 
dition of a certain quantity of grease. The wax 
of the sugar cane is gathered from a powder or 
bloom of a waxy nature, which melts at the tem- 
perature of 180° Fahr. 
that it can be pulverized; and it may be made 
into candles, which for the brilliancy of their 
light are not inferior to those of spermaceti. 
M. Avequin, who directed attention to this sub- 
ject, found by his experiments that a hectare, 
nearly 23 English acres, of the violet cane would 
furnish nearly 200 lbs. of wax. The wax of the 
Myrica carolinensis, is noticed in the article Wax 
TREE. , 
There is also a mineral wax called ozocerite, 
found at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, 
and lately, but in very small quantities, in the 
north of England, near the coal mines, This 
substance has less tenacity than wax; it easily 
crumbles, and can be beaten to powder in a mor- 
tar. Its specific gravity is also less than wax, 
being about 0926. Its colour is different shades 
of brown; but it will bear bleaching. In even 
its natural unpurified state it is translucent. Its 
melting temperature is the same as bees’ wax; 
its plastic temperature 100° Fahrenheit. In 
a eee | 
| 
This wax is so hard | 
guerra 24 
