“The wax in its rough state is in the form of a coarse pale grey powder, soft to the touch, and mixed with various impurities, consisting chiefly of fibres of the bark of the tree, which when separated by a sieve amount to about 40 per cent. It has an agreeable odour, somewhat resembling new hay, but scarcely any taste.”
(Here follow various chemical Experiments which I wish I could insert, but they are too long.)
“Having been unsuccessful in my attempts to bleach the wax in its original state, I made some experiments to ascertain whether its colour could be more easily destroyed, after it had been acted upon by nitric acid, and found that by exposing it spread upon glass to the action of light, it became in the course of three weeks of a pale straw colour, and on the surface nearly white(3). The same change was produced by steeping the wax, in thin plates, in an aqueous solution of oxymuriatic gas, but I have not hitherto succeeded in rendering it perfectly white.”
(Other chemical Experiments follow, which are of considerable Length.)
“From the preceding detail of experiments, it appears that although the South American vegetable wax possesses the characteristic properties of bees’ wax, it differs from that substance in many of its chemical habitudes; it also differs from the other varieties of wax, namely, the wax of the myrica cerifera, of lac, and of white lac. The attempts which have been made to bleach the wax have been conducted on a small scale; but from the experiments related, it appears that after the colour has been changed by the action of very dilute nitric acid, it may be rendered nearly white by the usual means. I have not had sufficient time to ascertain whether the wax can be more effectually bleached by long continued exposure, nor have I had an opportunity of submitting it to the processes employed by the bleachers of bees’ wax.”
“Perhaps the most important part of the present inquiry is that which relates to the combustion of the vegetable wax, in the form of candles. The trials which have been made to ascertain its fitness for this purpose are extremely satisfactory; and when the wick is properly proportioned to the size of the candle, the combustion is as perfect and uniform as that of common bees’ wax. The addition of one eighth to one tenth part of tallow is sufficient to obviate the brittleness of the wax in its pure state, without giving it any unpleasant smell, or materially impairing the brilliancy of its flame. A mixture of three parts of the vegetable wax with one part of bees’ wax, also makes very excellent candles.”
(1) This nobleman is since dead.
(2) It was sent to Rio de Janeiro by Francisco de Paula Cavalcante de Albuquerque, Governor of Rio Grande do Norte.
(3) The portion which the Governor of Rio Grande gave to me was in the form of a cake, which could not be pierced, but was brittle; it was of a pale straw colour.—Transl.
[279] “On l’apporte (the root) en Europe coupeé en rouelles blanches & assez légéres.”—Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais a Cayenne, &c. tom. iii. p. 262.