Class XXIX.]

025

WAX CANDLES ; PAR J

Tliis chemist, by his recent elaborate researches, hasshown that Chinese wax is a compouud of a peculiar fattyacid (cerotic) and the oxide of an alcohol radicaleerotyl), ami is consequently ccrotate of oxide of cerotyl.Ordinary bees’-wax he finds generally to contain 22 percent, of free cerotic acid, which is soluble in alcohol,and, with potassa, forms readily a soap. The residue,which is nearly insoluble in alcohol, and which lias beenusually called myricin, he has shown to be a compoundof palmitic acid and the oxide of another alcohol radical'melissyl), that is, palmitate of oxide of melissyl. Hehas likewise been able to prepare from wax two new solidhydrocarbons (compounds of carbon and hydrogen),similar to paraffin.

Paraffin would be much too costly to be converted intocandles if made from wax, as its preparation entails aconsiderable loss of material: it is, nevertheless, desirablethat it should be obtained cheaply from some source, asit is much better adapted than any other substance forilluminating purposes, from its containing no elementbesides carbon and hydrogen, which are united in equalequivalents; it is, therefore, exactly of the same com-position in a hundred parts as olefiant gas, which givesto ordinary coal and oil-gases their illuminating power.Examples of paraffin-candles are exhibited by Masse andTrirouili/et in the French Section, which were madefrom paraffin obtained by distilling bituminous schist;but far more interesting specimens are sent by JamesYoung, Class II., Xo. 7n, which seem to realize the greatproblem which the rare sagacity of Liebig* pointed outas far back as ten years ago. “ It would certainly beesteemed one of the greatest discoveries of the age,”says he, “ if any one could succeed iu condensing coal-gas into a white, dry, solid, odourless substance, portable,and capable of being placed upon a candlestick or burnedin a lamp.” Now this very problem Mr. Young appearsto have accomplished by distilling coal at a compara-tively low temperature, whereby he obtains, instead ofgas—the product of intense heat—a mixture of liquidand solid substances, the former capable of being burnedin lamps like sperm-oil, or of being used for lubricating 'machinery, the latter yielding a beautiful mould-candle :as solid and white as any prepared from paraffin fromother sources. The Reporters have not, as yet, beenable to obtain a fuller account of the economical hear-ings of Mr. Young's process,+ which will most likely beconsidered in the Report upon another Class, but they ;confidently hope that tliis truly beautiful discovery will ’not meet with similar difficulties as the plan proposedsome years ago for making paraffin-candles out of Irishpeat. If coal-paraffin can actually be obtained in sufficientquantity and at moderate cost, we may witness anotherrevolution in the processes of illumination; and thebrilliant discoveries of Chevreul , but lately threatenedby the splendour of the electric light, may be eclipsed !by the general adoption of solidified coal-gas candles.

In most countries wax intended to be made into caudlesis previously bleached by a process presently to be de-scribed. That this, however, is not always the ease, wefind by specimens exhibited in the Egyptian and TunisianCourts. The candles in the latter, which we may infer :resemble those of the classical ancients, are true yellow ;v ax “ dips,” and have a very ungainly appearance. The !bces’-wax from which they are made is principally pro- iduced in the province of Kirwan; and the primitive 1method usually adopted for their manufacture consists in ’merely melting the Max in a copper vessel, and then jdipping the wick repeatedly into it. Although such is |the usual mode, the wax is sometimes bleached, and ofcourse finer candles produced, but none such M ere ex-hibited. Xo animal fat is employed in Tunis for themanufacture of candles, although stearic candles ofEuropean manufacture are imported, and are in verygeneral use.

* Familiar Letters on Chemistry, 3rd edition; Letter xilp. 158.

t According to a statement furnished to the Reporters,100 parts of cannel-coal, from Bathgate, yielded 40 parts ofoil, and 10 parts of paraffin.

X; 'WAX BLEACHING, Ac.

Wax is more valuable when bleached, not only onaccount of the greater beauty, but also from the removalby this operation of impurities which would clog thewick during combustion. It may be bleached by chlorine,but the process is of no value, because its constituentsretain a portion in combination, and hence hydrochloricacid is given off in burning.*

The method of bleaching employed is very simple,although tedious; the following, with some trifling varia-tions, is the plan adopted in most countries.

Wax Bleaching. —The Max is cut up into small piecesand placed in a vat, into which steam is made to passthrough a perforated coil of pipes: a small quantity ofvery dilute sulphuric acid being added, in the proportionof one pint measure of strong sulphuric acid (oil ofvitriol) to one ton of wax, and the whole well agitatedfor some time. This addition of sulphuric acid facili-tates the separation of impurities which subside into theacidulated water.

As soon as, by subsidence, the Max has become bright,it is removed into a trough, with holes in the bottomabout the size of an ordinary quill. The melted waxruns through these holes in small streams, on to a woodencylinder, which is made to revolve, and the lower halfofM'hich is immersed in a cistern of cold water. Themotion of the cylinder carries up a layer of Mater, onwhich tlie streams of wax fall, and form exceedinglv thinribbons, varying from half to one inch in breadth; theseribbons, by the revolution of the cylinder, dip underMater, and as they rise upon the opposite surface, areremoved, and spread out thinly and evenly on tables,placed in the open air, so as to be exposed to the actionof the sun and air for a period varying from five to tenM eeks. Once or twice, during that period, the wax isagain subjected to the same process of melting; it re-quires also frequent turning, so as to present every portionto the bleaching agency of sunlight.

The fusing-point of M ax is raised by bleaching, foryellow uax fuses between 62° and C3 C. (144- and146 3 F.\ and bleached wax between G4° and 65° C.(147 and 149 F.\

All Maxes are not found to bleach with equal facility,according to the statement of Mr. Barclay. For example,English, Hamburgh, Odessa, Portuguese , Mogadore,Zanzibar, East and West Indian, and North American Maxes bleach very readily, whilst those from Cuba ,Dant.dc, Koenigsberg, Gambia, and Gabon are onlybleached with difficulty, and seldom acquire a goodcolour.

Notwithstanding the difficulty M'ith which Gambia wax is bleached, and its liability to become of a rustybrown, that country furnishes the greater part of thewax which is imported into Great Britain . Large quan-tities arc likewise imported from Mogadore, the EastIndie?, particularly Ceylon and Singapore, and NorthAmerica ; the Mogadore M*ax is frequently largely adul-terated with fat.

From Brazil a curious wax has been imported, theproduct of a black bee, which hives under ground. It issoft, and exceedingly tenacious, and of a dark mahoganycolour. It does not appear in the slightest degree bleachedafter exposure to the sun. A considerable quantity mightbe imported, but no use has as j et been found for it.

The English wax is the most esteemed of all, but thesmall quantity produced is absorbed for various purposeswithout bleaching, on account of its fine quality and itsbrightness and fragrancy.

In 1850 the quantity of bees’-wax imported for homeconsumption in Great Britain was 10,701 cwt., besides asmall quantity of vegetable wax amounting to only 5 cwt.There is no duty on M-ax.

* llie attempt to bleach wax by means of chlorine,although unsuccessful in a practical point of view, has beenvery fertile in theoretical results. It is not generally knoM nthat one of the loading views in chemistry, the so-cal : edtheory of substitution, derived its origin from Gay-Lussac ’sobservation, that wax, Mlien exposed to the action of chlo-rine, absorbed this element into its composition, releasingan equivalent quantity of hydrogen in the form of hydro*chloric acid.

2 s