Wax, the name given to some animal and vegetable substances, and even to one or two mineral bodies, which more or less resemble beeswax both in their appearance and in their physical properties. Beeswax and Chinese pe-la wax are of animal origin: Carnauba palm-wax and myrica-wax are vegetable products; and ozokerite (see BITUMEN) is an example of mineral wax. The true waxes differ from fats in not yielding glycerine when they are made into soaps with alkalis.
Beeswax is secreted by bees, and of it they build the walls of the cells of their comb. When this is drained of honey it is melted in boiling water, and the wax which floats on the surface is collected in the solid state when the water cools. Raw beeswax is of an impure yellow colour, so that for many purposes it requires to be bleached. Its fracture is finely granular, and it has a peculiar glistening appearance when rubbed which, when seen in other bodies, is called waxy. The melting-point of beeswax varies from about 139° to over 146° F., and its sp. gr. is .960. It is soluble in ether, turpentine, benzole, and some other liquids, but not in alcohol. It contains about 85 per cent. of myricin, a compound of one of the higher ethers of the ethyl series with palmitic acid. Myricin is a crystalline fatty body melting at 162° F., and having the formula . It differs from ordinary fats by yielding on saponification myricyl alcohol, a crystalline fatty body, in place of glycerine. Cerotic acid, , is also present in beeswax to the extent of about 12 per cent., and generally in the free state. This acid is dissolved by boiling alcohol in which the other bodies composing wax are insoluble. As both myricin and cerotic acid are crystalline and brittle, and melt at higher temperatures than wax itself, the tenacity and plastic character of the latter is ascribed to the presence of a comparatively small quantity of a softer substance named cerolein, which does not seem to have been as yet thoroughly investigated. Melissic acid () was first prepared by Brodie from the myricin of beeswax, in which it has lately been found in the free state. With one exception it is the highest known member of the fatty acids. It fuses at 194° F. (90° C.).
Beeswax is bleached by dividing cakes of it into ribbons, which are spread on canvas, kept moist and exposed to sunshine. The ribbons are turned over at intervals, and occasionally sprinkled with water. After a first bleaching the wax is melted, formed once more into ribbons, and again exposed to the sun's rays. A third treatment of the same kind is usually required. Only solar bleaching will suit when it is to be used for candle-making, and for this purpose the wax also requires a previous treatment with acid. Wax can, however, be bleached with chemical agents. Candles of this material cannot be made, like those of stearin or paraffin, in moulding machines, since they do not part freely from the moulds. They are manufactured by first pouring melted wax on wicks arranged round a hoop, and when they have reached the proper thickness they are rolled in the plastic state on a marble slab. Candles of beeswax, owing to its greater hardness, have less tendency to 'gutter' than those made of stearin or paraffin. Beeswax has also a pleasant odour. By itself it makes by far the best carriage candles, and when these are made of other materials beeswax is sometimes mixed with them. But its high price limits its use for such purposes. It is employed for waxing floors of polished wood, as an ingredient in making some varnishes, for making lithographic crayons, and as a resist in printing patterns on calico.
Wax was of importance to the ancients for writing-tablets (see WRITING), the writing produced by the sharp end of the stylus being, when it had served its purpose, obliterated by the other end. The art of modelling figures and portraits in wax dates from prehistoric times. Beeswax was used for this purpose by the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Greeks practised the art with great skill at least 300 years B.C., and developed the method of casting in bronze by means of wax now known as cire perdue (see FOUNDERING, Vol. IV. p. 752). Wax was the material in which the patterns or models for both large and small works of art in bronze were usually finished in ancient and Renaissance times, and was so employed that it might melt away in the casting of them. The Romans were wont to have wax portraits of their ancestors set up in their entrance-halls as evidence of ancient pedigree. Wax was also the material with which the colours for encaustic painting practised by the ancients were made up. The remarkable portraits, believed to have been executed in the earlier centuries of our era, which were discovered by Dr Flinders Petrie at Fayûm in Egypt, were painted with pigments laid on with melted wax. A modern kind of encaustic (see MURAL DECORATION) is sometimes called wax-painting. Wax and other images were used with evil intent in Magic (q.v.). In the 14th and 15th centuries sculpturing in wax, or cero-plastics, was practised by artists of good standing, who have left mainly figures in low relief or statuettes. But Vasari praises a large portrait statue of Lorenzo de' Medici by Verrocchio and Orsino, of which the framework was wood, clothed with real garments, the face, head, and hands being of wax. But no skill evades the lividness of the flesh or the ghastly stare of the glass eye; and wax-portraiture has been abandoned by artists proper, and left to the skilful workmen who manufacture portrait figures of royal personages, popular characters, and distinguished murderers for shows, perambulating or permanent. Of the latter that of Mme. Tussaud (q.v.) is the best known. Wax-modelling has also a humbler sphere in the making of one kind of artificial flowers, composed of thin leaves of coloured wax, surface painted in detail with proper pencils, and artificial fruit, and in producing tailors' dummies, as well as anatomical models and pathological specimens; and embryological models, now much used in the teaching of zoology, are usually made of wax.
Beeswax is produced in nearly all the temperate and tropical countries of the world. Large quantities are obtained from southern Asia and North Africa. East Indian wax mostly comes from hilly regions, the bees which produce it being wild or semi-wild. The amount of beeswax annually imported into the United Kingdom is about 50 tons. Its price in the bleached state is £7 per cwt.
Chinese wax is produced by Coccus ceriferus, Fabr. (Coccus pe-la of Westwood), living on the ash-tree Fraxinus chinensis, and belonging to the same genus as the lac-insect (see LAC). This beautiful substance resembles spermaceti in general appearance. It has a highly crystalline structure, and is very hard for a wax, its melting-point being 180° F. Chemically it consists chiefly of ceryl cerotate. Although this should be an excellent material for making candles, their manufacture from it presents some points of difficulty. It is perhaps owing to this, still more to its high price, that the wax has never become an article of much commercial importance in Europe. But it is so in China and Japan, where it is used for making candles, or for coating candles of inferior materials, and also for sizing paper and textiles. The average annual production in China is valued at £600,000. The price per cwt. is £7, 10s.
A wax similar to the Chinese pe-la is produced in Japan by an insect which is probably another species of coccus living on Ligustrum Iboti. It is, however, not abundant enough to be of industrial importance.
Spermaceti.—See this head.
Carnauba wax is found in thin films on the leaves of a Brazilian palm (Copernicia cerifera). It consists chiefly of myricyl cerotate and myricyl alcohol. Its melting-point is 185° F., rising to about 195° F. when long kept, and its specific gravity is about .99. This substance is made into candles to a large extent in Brazil, but it is only used in limited quantities in the candle manufacture in England. A small proportion of it mixed with other candle-making materials is useful in destroying the 'mottle' which some of these have a tendency to show. Carnauba wax is used to adulterate beeswax, and on the Continent to mix with such substances as stearin and cerosin to make cheap 'wax' candles for church purposes. The imports of Carnauba wax into England, though not large, are increasing—2500 bags in 1891, and much more in 1892. The price is £3 per cwt.
From the stem of Ceroxylon andicola, the wax-palm of the Andes, a resinous exudation is obtained, about one-third of which consists of a wax used for making candles (see PALM). A similar substance is produced by Ktopstockia cerifera, another South American palm.
Japan Wax is obtained from the fruit of several species of Rhus, of which R. succedanea is the most important, but R. vernicifera and R. sylvestris also yield it. The berries contain the wax between the kernel and the outer skin. The raw wax is of a greenish colour, and is cut into strips and bleached white by exposure to the sun. This wax is mostly composed of palmitin, and is therefore rather a fat than a true wax. Its melting-point varies from 124° to 128° F. It is important as a candle-making material in Japan, although but little used for this purpose in England. It has a rather unpleasant smell. Japan wax is an ingredient in some polishing mixtures for furniture and leather, and it is also employed to make a transparent castor-oil pomade. The imports of it into England, amounting to 625 cases in 1892, are very variable. The price per cwt. is £1, 18s.
Myrtle-berry Wax.—The berries of several species of Myrica are coated with a waxy substance. In the United States the wax from M. cerifera, which is a rather soft greenish substance, with a melting-point of 123° F., has been much used (more or less mixed with beeswax) for candle-making. It consists most largely either of free palmitic acid or of palmitin with some myristin. M. cordifolia of South Africa and other species found in South America yield myrtle-wax (see CANDLEBERRY).
Paraffin-wax.—Solid paraffin is so called. When of good quality for candle-making, it is a comparatively hard, pure white substance resembling beeswax, but rather more translucent. It has neither taste nor odour, and is not acted on by either alkalies or acids, with the single exception of nitric acid, which slowly attacks it, but only when this acid is at or near its boiling-point. Paraffin dissolves with the aid of heat in various naphthas (those from shale, petroleum, and coal-tar), in turpentine, ether, bisulphide of carbon, and to some extent also in alcohol and fatty oils. Paraffins are found in commerce with various melting-points, but all are mixtures of hydrocarbons belonging to the marsh-gas or paraffin series (see HYDROCARBONS). Those melting between 70° and 118° F. have a crystalline structure and are classed as soft paraffins. Such as melt between 115° and 150° F. (about the highest that can be made) are called hard paraffins, and in these the crystalline texture disappears. The hard are less easily dissolved than the soft kinds.
Besides its extensive use in candle-making, paraffin is employed for a great many purposes in the arts, such as for laundry purposes along with starch, for dressing textile fabrics and for rendering them waterproof, in the manufacture of perfumes from flowers, and to give a finish to certain articles made of wood, bone, or leather. In the United States it has been extensively consumed as a chewing-gum, and has been tried with some success as a preservative of fruit. Soft paraffin is largely bought for dipping matches. Paraffin purified without the use of acid has recently come into extensive use as an insulator by electricians. See PARAFFIN, CANDLE, and HYDROCARBONS.