Home › Fixed Oils And Fats › To Detect Spermaceti in Wax

To Detect Spermaceti in Wax

The presence of spermaceti in what is sold as virgin wax, is shown by its reduced melting point, its bending before it breaks, and by its flavor when chewed. 1583. To Detect Japanese Wax in Bees' Wax. According to Hager, this is determined by their different behavior in a concentrated solution of borax, at the boiling point. Bees' wax is totally insoluble in such streaky, or of different shades of color. It should also be allowed to cool very slowly.

When cooled rapidly, especially if a current of air fall upon its surface, it is apt to crack and form cakes full of fissures. Some persons who are very nice about their wax, have the cakes polished with a stiff brush when quite cold and hard. It is necessary to have the cans, ladles, and skimmers used in the above process kept quite hot, as without this precattion the wax cools, and accumulates upon them in such quantity as to render them inconvenient, and often quite useless, without being constantly scraped out.