Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/535

 WAUPAOA WAUPACA, a central county of Wisconsin, in- tersected by the Waupaca and Embarras rivers nnd their branches ; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 15,539; in 1875, 19,646. The surface is undulating, and the greater portion is covered with dense forests of valuable timber. The soil is very fertile. Immense quantities of lumber are exported. Weyauwegan lake is in the S. part. It is traversed by the Wisconsin Central and the Green Bay and Lake Pepin railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 196,582 bushels of wheat, 24,312 of rye, 103,- 300 of Indian corn, 111,357 of oats, 96,489 of potatoes, 283,563 Ibs. of butter, 33,301 of wool, and 14,461 tons of hay. There were 1,796 horses, 3,606 milch cows, 4,798 other cattle, 10,378 sheep, and 3,609 swine; 3 manu- factories of agricultural implements, 8 of car- riages and wagons, 2 of iron castings, 5 tan- neries, 10 flour mills, 19 saw mills, and 1 wool- len mill. Capital, Waupaca. WAUSHARA, a central county of Wisconsin, drained by Fox, White, and Pine rivers ; area, 648 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 11,279; in 1875, 11,523. The surface is undulating and partly covered with a heavy growth of good timber, much of which is exported. The soil is fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 201,743 bushels of wheat, 64,200 of rye, 143,099 of Indian corn, 166,383 of oats, 21,951 of buck- wheat, 91,391 of potatoes, 321,706 Ibs. of but- ter, 42,769 of wool, and 13,394 tons of hay.. There were 1,978 horses, 10,790 cattle, 11,771 sheep, and 3,954 swine; 5 flour mills, and 9 saw mills. Capital, Wautoma. WAVE, See LIGHT, SOUND, and TIDES. WAX, an organic product of animal and vegetable origin, and occurring also as a min- eral, though of organic origin. The term was originally restricted to beeswax ; but there are many kinds of wax, only a few of which have been accurately investigated. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, carbon and hydrogen being greatly in excess. They are more or less hard at ordinary tem- peratures, melt below 212, are insoluble in water, sparingly soluble or insoluble in alco- hol, and soluble in ether, volatile and fixed oils, bisulphide of carbon, and chloroform. They burn with a brilliant flame in the air, and are not easily saponified by boiling with solution of potash, but readily form soap by fusion with solid potash. The only animal waxes known to be such are common bees- wax and Andaquies wax, produced by a bee found near the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, though Chinese wax, noticed further on, is by some supposed to be the product of an insect. Beeswax, ordinary wax, or cera, is the sub- stance with which bees build their cells. It was formerly thought that these insects ex- tracted it ready formed from plants ; but the careful observations of Huber showed that when bees are fed upon pure sugar alone they will continue to secrete wax. Beeswax at ordinary temperatures is solid, tough, yellow, WAX 515 and has a peculiar odor and greasy feel. If pared in thin scales and exposed to the air in sunshine, it becomes bleached. It may also be bleached by the action of nitric acid, as well as by chlorine, which however combines with the wax, forming a substitution product which, being decomposed on burning, yields vapors of hydrochloric acid. According to Lewy, beeswax is composed of 80'2 per cent, of car- bon, 13-4 of hydrogen, and 6'4 of oxygen. It is a mixture of three different substances: 1, my- ricine, insoluble in boiling alcohol and consist- ing principally of myricic palmitate ; 2, cerotic acid, formerly called cerine, soluble in boiling alcohol, which crystallizes out on cooling; 8, ceroleine, which remains dissolved in cold al- cohol. Beeswax, as usually seen in cakes, is obtained by melting the combs in boiling wa- ter, running off the wax, remelting with hot water or steam, and allowing it to flow upon horizontal wooden cylinders, which revolve half immersed in cold water. This forms thin ribbons, which are bleached by the air, light, and moisture, by exposure upon canvas stretched horizontally. When the bleaching process seems stationary, the wax is remelt- ed, and the process is repeated until it be- comes white. It is finally melted, strained through silk sieves, and cast in moulds. Bees- wax is sometimes adulterated with starch, but the fraud may be detected by oil of turpentine, which dissolves the wax but not the starch. Mutton suet, a more frequent adulterant, may be detected by dry distillation, which causes in tallow the production of sebacic acid, a body which produces precipitation in a solution of acetate of lead. It is said that an adulteration of only 2 per cent, may be detected in this way. Stearine, also sometimes introduced, may be detected, according to Lebel, when forming less than 5 per cent., by dissolving the specimen in two parts of oil and adding acetate of lead, which produces a solid precipitate. Chinese wax, or pela, also called vegetable spermaceti and vegetable insect wax, is generally supposed to be produced on certain trees by a puncture of a species of coccus; it covers the branches with a soft white coating about a line in thickness, which may be removed by boiling water. It consists chiefly of cerotate of ceryle, Ce^ioeOa. It is crystalline, and brilliantly white like sper- maceti, but more brittle and fibrous ; it melts at 179 F. It is used in China for making candles, and also in medicine. Cow-tree wax is obtained by evaporating the milk of the cow tree; it softens at 104 F., melts at 140, and is insoluble in cold alcohol, but dissolves com- pletely in boiling alcohol, and is saponified by alkalies. According to Berzelius, it resembles beeswax more than any other kind of wax. Cuba wax is yellowish brown, of unknown origin, imported from Cuba. It is softer than beeswax, and dissolves in warm ether and tur- pentine oil, and almost completely in boiling alcohol. It contains 76-5 per cent, of cerine, 10'5 of myricine, 2 of balsamic resin, and 3'5