Paraffin wax

“ We may raise the melting point ten degrees, if we like, by the addition of the carnauba wax, which, however, is highly crystalline. A crystalline wax is not desirable because it cracks and permits the air to enter and we have a desiccation of the scion. The Standard Oil people will furnish paraffin with a melting point of 138 degrees, and that will cover all of our needs for hot countries. But in getting paraffins that melt at 136, 137 or 138 degrees we have a rather definite crystalline element. Mr. Bixby has suggested the use of the earth wax which is mined in Australia. ”

“ It does not break easily when worked in a warm dye-bath. It melts at a high temperature. Resin mixed with beeswax melts at a still higher temperature. There are special [Pg 60] batik waxes that have all the desired qualities of toughness and resistance. These mixed waxes are similar to those used by industrial works in Java. Paraffin and beeswax are also used.
The best container for molten wax is a double boiler, the common kitchen utensil, as it is possible to keep the wax hot through a class period without having the heater in the class room. ”

“ Beeswax, or paraffin, is fixed to the side of the cup and formed into a dish shape, the surface on which the onlaying is to be done being covered with only a thin layer of the wax. With a needle or other suitable instrument, scratch the markings desired through the thin layer of wax to the surface of the cup. Pour copper sulphate into the wax cavity if the onlay is to be of copper, and suspend a small piece of pure copper in the liquid, connected with the positive pole of a storage battery, or other similar electrical source. ”

“ In the same way are made these candles of stearin and of paraffin. It is a curious thing to see how wax candles are made. A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you see here, and covered with metal tags at the ends to keep the wax from covering the cotton in those places. These are carried to a heater, where the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; and as they turn, a man takes a vessel of wax and pours it first down one, and then the next and the next, and so on. ”

“ Pouring, used in the case of wax, which cannot well be moulded because it contracts in cooling and also has a tendency to stick to the moulds, consists in ladling molten wax upon the wicks suspended from an iron ring. When of the desired thickness the candles are rolled under a plate on a marble slab. In drawing, used for small tapers, the wick, rolled on a drum, is passed through the molten wax or paraffin, drawn through a circular hole and slowly wound on a second drum ”

“ Paraffine is a white substance, void of taste and smell, feels soft between the fingers, has a specific gravity of 0·87, melts at 112° Fahr., boils at a higher temperature with the exhalation of white fumes, is not decomposed by dry distillation, burns with a clear white flame without smoke or residuum, does not stain paper, and consists of 85·22 carbon, and 14·78 hydrogen; having the same composition as olefiant gas. It is decomposed neither by chlorine, strong acids, alkalis, nor potassium; and unites by fusion with sulphur, phosphorus, wax, and rosin. ”

“ Stir the whole until it is entirely cool, and the result will be a kind of pomade fit for waxing furniture, and which must be rubbed over them according to the usual method. The oil of turpentine is soon dissipated; but the wax, which by its mixture is reduced to a state of very great division, may be extended with more ease, and in a more uniform manner. The essence soon penetrates the pores of the wood, calls forth the colour of it, causes the wax to adhere better, and the lustre which thence results is equal to that of varnish, without having any of its inconveniences. ”

“ To Mold a Calla Lily. Have ready a basin of hot soap suds, strong as possible of soap, and hot, so that your lily will be smooth, not lumpy or bubbly. Melt your wax by setting the tin cup in boiling water, as glue is melted. To every pound of white wax add a tube of Winsor & Newton’s flake white paint, dissolved and thoroughly mixed with one tablespoonful balsam fir, or Venetian turpentine, and half table spoonful of dissolved gum mastic, the whitest possible. This is a good recipe for sheeting wax for your own use, and will be given below in preparations for sheeted wax flowers. ”

“ Wax itself is a substance that has no similitude to any other known. It is now thought, that, as there are three orders of bee, so there are three substances merely in the hive,—honey, farina, and wax. Pliny enumerates three others,—commosis, pissoceros, and propolis. Of these many moderns still retain the last, calling it a resinous matter collected from alders and willows, and used for the more secure foundation of the comb. But upon subjecting a lump of propolis to the boiling process by which wax is purified, it turns out simple wax of nearly its former weight ”

“ If it is deemed advisable—which I think is only required in very dark over-done pictures—to wax the negative, it is easily managed by holding a piece of white wax or candle in front of a clean iron rather hot, and passing it frequently over the surface. ”

“ A small quantity of scions may be kept in an icebox (not a mechanical refrigerator) , by cutting them into convenient lengths of one or two feet, dipping them in melted beeswax, wrapping them in tar or asphalt paper and placing them close to the ice. They will remain in good condition for several months if there is always a good supply of ice. Care must be taken in dipping the scions in melted wax, for if the wax is too hot it will injure the buds. It should never become so hot that it smokes. I find it advisable to keep an unmelted piece of wax in the liquid wax to hold the temperature down. ”

“ In order, however, that it may not melt, it is the practice to cover it with a linen cloth: if, when it has been thus refined, it is boiled once more, the result is a wax of the greatest possible whiteness.
Punic wax is considered the best for all medicinal preparations. Wax is made black by the addition of ashes of papyrus, and a red colour is given to it by the admixture of alkanet ”

“ Wax is the last, and, as I have before pointed out, is, whether used melted or softened by warm water, of the highest service to the artist. Beeswax, when melted, will mix well with either plaster or whiting, or with both, and will make a useful modelling composition, its brittleness being determined by its containing more or less plaster. Wax will also mix with red ochre, and makes a modelling composition. Modelling wax is sold, however, ready prepared, and is useful to pack under the skin for delicate muscles or "flabby" folds of skin. ”

“ Many pictures have been carried out within the last century on walls in a regular wax medium that may or may not represent an ancient process. Hippolyte Flandrin executed his series of mural pictures in St Vincent de Paul and St Germain des Prés in Paris in a process worked out by Paillot de Montabert. Wax dissolved in turpentine or oil of spike is the main constituent of the medium with which the wall is saturated and the colours ground. Heat is used to drive the wax into the plaster. ”

“ One method was to melt wax with oil of turpentine as a vehicle for the colours. It is well known that wax may be dissolved in spirit and used as a medium, but it dries too quickly to allow of perfect blending, and would by the evaporation of the spirit be prejudicial to the artist’s health. Another method suggested about this time, and one which seems to tally very well with Pliny’s description, is the following. Melt the wax with strong solution of salt of tartar, and let the colours be ground up in it. ”

“ If the commoner sorts of wax are used, some marine glue must be added to it to temper it. The side slips should be fixed a quarter of an inch apart, so as to form a cavity, which must be entirely filled up with wax. The wax may be used as in sealing a letter in the first instance; but, in order to give the whole bath solidity, and expel every particle of air from between the glass, I use a heated pointed iron, as a plumber does in the act of soldering. This, passed over the external parts of the wax, also gives it a hardness and smooth finish. ”

“ It is greatly denser than wax, being of the same specific gravity as water; and may be distilled without decomposition, which cerine undergoes. See these two articles.
Wax is adulterated sometimes with starch; a fraud easily detected by oil of turpentine, which dissolves the former, and leaves the latter substance; and more frequently with mutton suet. This fraud may be discovered by dry distillation; for wax does not thereby afford, like tallow, sebacic acid (benzoic) , which is known by its occasioning a precipitate in a solution of acetate of lead. It is said that two per cent. ”

“ If any one should still be disposed to make such use of foundation, they should only purchase of very reliable parties, that they may be sure to use only such wax as is genuine, yellow, clean, and certainly unmixed with paraffine, or any of the commercial products which were first used to adulterate the wax. Only pure, clean, unbleached wax should be used in making foundation. We should be very careful not to put on the market any comb-honey where the foundation had not been properly thinned by the bees. ”

“ The white wax, for instance, contains white lead; the green, copper; the yellow, chrome yellow and vermilion—strong poisons all; while many other kinds of wax are equally poisonous, and, therefore dangerous. There are very many persons who are aware of the intense sufferings, for very many years past, of Mr. W. Bally, phrenologist and modeller in wax, in which latter branch he has laboured for 24 or 25 years, three of them as teacher of the art, at the Manchester Mechanics' Institution. ”

“ When molten, it takes the minutest impressions of a mould, and it sets and hardens at such a temperature that no ordinary climatic influences affect the form it assumes, even when it is cast in thin laminae. The facilities which wax offers for modelling have been taken advantage of from the remotest times. Figures in wax of their deities were used in the funeral rites of the ancient Egyptians, and deposited among other offerings in their graves ”

“ We put the wax in a pipkin (I always say “pipkin” when I have a chance, because it is such a charming word; but if my readers prefer “saucepan,” let them have it by all means!) —we put it, I say, in a pipkin, and melted it. (For a pleasure wholly without alloy, I can recommend the poking and punching of half-melted wax.) Then, when it was ready, we stirred in the yellow powder, which produced a fine Bartlett color. Then we poured the mixture—oh, joy!—into the two pear or peach shaped halves of the plaster mold, and clapped them together ”

“ Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky."
Wordsworth.
Prepare the petals in white wax: there are five in number. Pass the head of a large pin firmly down the centre, so as to cup each. Cover a fine green wire with a strip of light green wax; at the end of this affix a small piece of orange wax, and mould it to a point, not allowing it to be larger than a carraway seed. Dip the point of this foundation in water, and then [20] into the second yellow powder, which gives it the appearance of farina. ”

“ If desired, the wax can again be melted and cast in convenient-sized blocks in moulds which have previously been well smeared with sweet oil to prevent the wax sticking to them. An appliance called a wax-extractor will be useful for rendering larger quantities of wax from old combs.
Beeswax comes in very useful for a variety of purposes in the home. Mixed with spirits of turpentine, it forms a valuable furniture polish. A lump is handy in the work-basket for waxing sewing-threads. It is also useful for securing foundation in frames and sections. ”

“ For the same reason the wax-saucepan should be kept very clean, and the wax frequently poured off, and all sediment thrown away. A bit of cotton-fluff off the duster is enough to drag a "lump" out on the end of the waxing-tool, which, before you have time to notice it, will be dribbling over the glass and perhaps spoiling it; for you must note that sometimes it is necessary to re-wax down unfired work, which a drop of wax the size of a pinhole, flirted off from the end of the tool, will utterly ruin. ”

“ The pistillum and stigma are painted entirely over with the same colour previously used for veining. Cut five fine stamina in white wax, to the points of each attach an anther, cut in deep orange wax. They are placed across the end, and united by pressing them together with the head of the curling pin. ”

“ A box iron very hot is best for the purpose; but the most important thing to attend to is that the paper should be perfectly dry, and it should therefore be passed between blotting-paper and well ironed before the wax is applied. Negatives will even attract moisture from the atmosphere, and therefore this process should at all times be resorted to immediately before the application of the wax.
Some photographers prefer, instead of using wax, to apply a solution of Canada balsam in spirits of turpentine. This certainly adds much to the transparency of the negative ”

“ Curl the petals by passing the head of the pin twice or thrice from each edge towards the centre, and bend the same back. Fold down the edge or end of two sheets of thick white wax. Leave a quarter of an inch from the end quite white, then paint a pink stripe half an inch deep; leave [54] again a quarter of an inch white, and finally finish with a stripe of green. Cut the whole two widths into a deep fringe to form the stamina, and colour the anthers (produced by the fold) with cream colour (white and lemon powders) . Take a piece of middle size wire, pass round it a strip of white wax ”