WASHING PREPARATIONS. Under this head may be classed every article sold to take the place of soap. Washing crystals are simply an hydrous carbonate of soda, sometimes ren dered caustic by the addition of lime. Washing fluids are gen erally based on such materials with the addition of ammonia, and borax. The flood of soap powders; Pearline, Lavine, S3apine, Sudsena, and countless others are prepared from the same bases. Some of the preparations are mixtures of soap, water, and am monia, merely making an ammoniated soft-soap.
WAX. That most commonly known to grocers is formed by bees, from sugar and constitutes the material of which the cells of the honey comb is composed. The insects work together on a. uniform plan and with such celerity that in a new hive a comb twenty inches long by seven or eight inches broad will be con structed in twenty-four hours, and in five or six days the hive will be half-filled. The wax thus produced is more or less yellow in color, and has an odor resembling that of honey. When the wax has served its purpose in the domestic economy of the hive it is collected for manufacturing purposes, by first allowing the honey to drain off or to be pressed out, and then, by repeated boilings and strainings, the product is obtained. For procuring a marketable wax from the combs by a single operation, without either straining or pressing, water and aquatortis in the propor. tion of one ounce of the latter to every quart of the former, are put into an earthen vessel, much narrower at thebottom than at top. When these are well blended, as many good wax combs are put in as will reach when melted to within a finger's length of the top of the pan. The pan is then set on a clear fire, and the wax is kept
stirred while melting, and until it has boiled long enough to liquefy the whole completely. It is then removed from the fire, and allowed to cool gradually. For the greater number of uses to which the substance is applied, it is necessary that the wax should be rendered perfectly white. This is effected by exposing it in thin ribbons on a bleaching-ground, where it is subjected to the action of light, air and moisture, and loses both color and odor, Myrtle Wax is obtained from a low spreading shrub sometimes called Candleberry, or Tallow tree. It is a native of the United States, but most plentiful in the South. The berries are about the size of peppercorns and when ripe are covered with a greenish yellow wax, which is collected by boiling them and skimming it off as it floats on the surface of the liquids it is afterwards melted and refined. A bushel of berries will yield from four to five pounds. It is chiefly used for candles, which burn slowly with little smoke and admit an agreeable balsamic odor, but fail to give a brilliant light. An excellent scented fancy soap is made from it. A species of the same shrub is found very plentifully in the of Scotland and also at the Cape of Good lope.
Waxed Paper, is used to wrap butter, lard and cheese, when retailed, and is very convenient and cleanly. It is odorless and tastless when properly made, and is fast gaining popularity being very cheap and desirable.