PREPARATION OF WAX.
Having drained all the honey from the combs, wash these in clean water; this liquid, by exposure to the sun and air, will make most excellent vinegar; put them in a clean boiler with some soft water; simmer over a clear fire until the combs are melted: pour a quart or so into a canvas bag, wide at the top and tapering downwards into a jelly bag; hold this over a tub of cold water; the boiling liquor will immediately pass away, leaving the liquefied wax and the dross in the bag; have ready a piece of smooth board, of such a length that one end may rest at the bottom of the tub and the other end at its top; upon this inclined plane lay your reeking bag, but not so as to touch the cold water; then, by compressing the bag with any convenient roller, the wax will ooze through and run down the board into the cold water, on the surface of which it will set in thin flakes; empty the dross out of the bag and replenish it with the boiling wax, and proceed as before until all has been pressed. When finished, collect the wax from the surface of the cold water, put it into a clean saucepan with very little water, melt it carefully over a slow fire, skim off the dross as it rises, then pour it into moulds, or shapes, and place them where they will cool slowly. The wax may be rendered still more pure by a second melting and moulding.