Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-03-15
BEEsW'A.X.
a MYSTERIOUS SECRETION FOE
STORING HONEY.
rhoro's o Pound of Comb TO Every
Pound OF Sweetness - Original
Form OF tho Wax-Bleach-
ing Process.

ing up honey no begins working his
legs energetically, patting his stomach
and carrying his scales to his mouth,
where he mixes them with frothy
liquid until tho scales are soft and
plastic. When tho scales are kneaded
enough the bee makes the hexagonal
cells of the honeycomb IN which IL
places its gathered sweets, for ii
knows that unless the honey is kept
from the light it will change and will
not be fit for it's food IN winter. When
the man who owns the beehive is
ready to rob it of its honey he re-
moves the comb. and either sends to
market tho little glass-faced box with
the honeycomb in it or else he puts
the comb in centrifugal machineand
whirls the honey out of it. He then
puts the comb in boiling water and
melts it down, running the melted
beeewax into little cakes.
It is estimated that for every pound
of honey there is one pound Of comb
and that over 100000 pounds Of
beeswax nro used in this country
every year. Since chemists and re.
finers went into active competition
with the honey bees and made pure,
white wax, OF parafin, out OF
petroleum, the use of beeswax in the
manufacture of sperm candles, wax
flowers and carbon papers has gone
down, but the cobblers, tailors and
harnessmakcrs still stick by tho honey
bee, and declare that no petroleum
wax can equal beeswax whom it comes
to wax-ends for slipping through awl-
holes. Chemists, artificial flower
makers, laundrios and other users of
wax havo not oil gone over to the
enemy, ns tho 500 tons of beeswax
consumed annually indicate that the
honey. bees hive hosts of friends left.
But many of these friends require
white, or nearly white wax, and the
yellow wax made by tho bee must first
be whitened or blcached before it is
put ON the market. Tho sun is tho
bleachcr, 80 oil bleacheries are in the
country away from the dirt and smoke
of cities, and usually in the center Oh
large honey districts. The beeswax
is sent to the bleaching house in the
shape of loaf-shaped cakes, each weigh
ing about twenty five pounds. Thesa
cakos arc broken into small pieces and
put into u vat or tub made Of cedar,
about five feet high and three feet
across. In tho bottom OF this vat nre
two square wooden pipes crossing each
other at right angles. The tops of
these pipes have o number of holes
in them and both are connected with
steam Pipe which brings the steam
to Thorn at pressure of about sixty
pounds to the square inch. From
1900, to 1900 pounds of wax is placed
into the vat at % time, and enough
water is run in to float the wax. Then
the steam is turned on, and it jets up
through the holes in the wooden pipes,
melting the wax. The dirt in tho wax
falls to the bottom Of the vat, and the
melted wax, about three hours after
tho steam is turned on, is ready to be
drawn from tho vat.
Not fnr from the sat in which the
YAK is melted is q wooden roller about
five feet long and a foot and half in
diameter. This roller revolves in cool
water and when the melted wax, after
first passing through sieve, falls
upon it in narrow ribbons it chills at
OANSy dLA oVlNh1At5 w but IOllCE, ID CUT
ried around into the water. The roller
turns once every second, and when the
chilled ribbons Of beeswax are carried
around into the cooler water they fly
Off of the roller into the water bed.
From the cooling bed the wax is
lifted on wooden forks, placed in boxes
and carried outside to tho bleaching
beds. These are called frames anIs
stand about three feet above theS
ground. Each frame is Gbout 100 feet
long, fifteen feet wide and a foot deep.
In each frame half ton of wax is
spread, and there it stays for month
OF five weeks, depending on the num-
Der of sunny days, for the wax is ex-
posed to the full light of the sun.
Several times day the wax is
sprinkled with water to keep the sun
from melting it, and once each day
two men harrow it with rake which
extends across the frame, SO that in
the month af bleaching every bit of
wax has all of it's sides exposed to the
sun several times.
At the end Of month the yellow
wax has turned creamy white, and
it is then taken back to tho melting
vat and remeltei, run through the
screen, over the wooden roller and
brought back to tho bleaching frames
for another stay, this time, however,
for only two weeks. BY this time the
beeswax is pure white, and is ready to
be put into marketable shape. Tho
boys take about 500 pounds of wax
and melt it in small tub. Near the
tub is table on which stands a large,
number OF pans about four inches in
diameter and O quarter of m inch
deep. The pans are arrangedi in rows,
for the melted wax is poured into ons
row ut time. Above the pans and
across the full width of the table is a
movable copper cylinder. It is really
q double cylinder, one inside of the
other, and the space between tho two
is filled with hot water. Tho melte:I
wax Is poured into the inside cylinder
and Is kept in liquid shape by the
hot water jacket.
a number of small Tubes lead from
L