The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-04-02
BEESWAX.
a MYSTERIOUS SECRETION FOR
STORING HONEY
There's a Pound of Comb to Every
Pound OF Sweetness - Original
Form OF the Wax-Bieach-
Ia. Process.

the stomach OF honey bees. When
the little busy bee thinks of stor-
ing mp honey he begins working his
legs euergeticaliy, patting his stomach
and carrying his scales 10 his mouth,
where he mixes them with frothv
liquid until the scales are soft aud
plastic. When the scales are kneadei
enough the bee makes the hexagonal
cells OF the houeycomb in which 1t
places its gathered sweets, for it
knows that unless the honey is kept
from the light it Will change and will
not be tit for its 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 the little glass-faced box with
the honeycomb in it or else ne puts
the comb in centrifugal machine AMI
whirls the honey out of it. He then
puts the comb IN boiling water AMI
melts it down, running the melted
beeswax into little cakes.
1t is estimated that for every pound
of honey there is one pound of comb,
and that over 1000, 900 pounds Of
beeswax are used in this country
every year. Since chemists and re-
fners went into active competition
with the honey bees and made pure,
white wax, or paraflin, 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
harnessmakers still stick by the honey
bee, and declare that no petroleum
wax can equal beeswax when it comes
to wax-ends for slipping through anvil
holes. Chemists, artificial flower
makers, laundries and other users of
wax have not all gone over to the
enemy, as the 800 tons of beeswax
consumed annually indicate that the
honey bees have hosts of friends left.
But many of these friends require
white, or nearly white wax, and the
yellow wax made by the bee must first
be whitened or bleached before it is
put on the market. The sun is the
bleacher, so ali bleacheries are in the
country away from the dirt and smoke
of cities, and usually in the center of
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. These
cakes are broken into small pieces and
put into O vat or tub made of cedar,
about five feet high and three feet
across. In the bottom of this vat are
two square wooden pipes crossing each
other at right angles. The tops of
these pipes have number of holes
in them and both are connected with
a steam pipe which brings the steam
to them at u pressure of about sixty
pounds to the square inch. From
1900 to 1900 pounds of wax is placed
into the vat at a time, and enough
water is run in to float the wax Then
the steam is turned on, and it Jets mp
through the holes in the wooden pipes,
melting the wax. The dirt in the wax
falls to the bottom of the vat, and the
melted wax, about three hours after
the steam is turned on, is ready to be
drawn from the vat.
Not far from the vat in which the
wax is melted is wooden roller about
five feet long and foot and a half in
diameter. This roller revolves in cool
water and when the mel ed wax, after
first passing through a sieve, falls
upon it in narrow ribbons it chills ut
once, and sticking to the roller, is car
riedaroundinto the water The roller
turns once every second, and when the
chilled ribbons Of beeswax are carried
around into the cooler water they ay
of 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 the bleaching
beds. These are called frames and
stand about three feet above the
ground. Each frame is about 100 feet
long, fifteen feet wide and a foot deep.
In each frame half ton of wax is
spread, and there it stays for q month
or 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 a day the wax is
sprinkled with water TO keep the sun
from melting 1t, and once each day
two men harrow it with a rake which
extends across the frame, SO that in
the month Of bleaching every bit OF
wax has all of its sides exposed % the
sun several times
At the end of month the yellow
wax has turned a creamy white, and
1t is then taken back TO the melting
vat aud remelted, run through the
screen, over the wooden roller aud
brought back 60 the bleaching frames
for another stay, this time, however.
for only two weeks Bv this time the
beeswax is pure white, and is ready to
be put into marketable shape. The
boys take about 500 pounds Of wax
and melt it in small tub. Near the
tub IS q table on which stands n large
nImner Of pans about four inches in
diameter and n quarter of an inch
deep. The pans are arranged Ira rows,
for the melted wax Is poured into on5
row ut a time Above the pans and
across the full width Of the table is q
movable copper cylinder lt IS really
q double cylinder, one inside OF the
other, and the space between the two
Is filed with hot water Tho melted
wax IS poured into the inside cylinder
and is kept in a liquid shape by the
hot water jacket
A number Of small tubes lead from
the inner cylinder through the water
jacket, aud one valve turns the melted
wax into all the tubes, so that the boy
who is filing she little pans can move