This device was designed and developed in the town that I
live in, namely Syston (man's name??? date???).
It is a simple tool, it is very effective, and I can
recommend it, having used one myself and having built several
variants based on the same principles.
It consists of a water chamber that is heated by gas or
electricity, in order to boil the water and create the steam.
Above this a collector and spout arrangement that allows
the molten wax and condensed steam to run out into a suitable
vessel. (I have used loaf baking tins that were teflon coated for
this purpose.)
Immediately above the spout collector pan there is a skirt
that deflects any molten wax into the collector rather than falling
into the boiling water below.
An upper chamber contains a mesh basket that holds the old
comb or wax fragments that are to be melted.
The assembly is topped by a close fitting lid that will not
leak steam.
Efficiency can be improved by lagging the metal skin of the
extractor. Various filters or sieves may be fitted to the spout to
catch any large fragments of cocoon that can sometimes get through.
The way it works... When water is boiled at atmospheric
pressure it heats up to 100° C and remains then at that
temperature whilst each gram of water absorbs another 540 calories of
energy (the latent heat of vapourisation). Only after this extra
energy is supplied, does the water become steam. When steam comes in
contact with cooler surfaces this latent heat is given up and in the
case of the wax causes it to melt. As the latent heat of fusion of
beeswax is only 42 calories per gram there will be almost thirteen
grams of wax melted for every gram of water that is turned to steam
(minus the heat that is used to raise the wax from ambient to
63° C). This still leaves five or six times the wax melted for
the steam generated. The melting is only at the outer
surface of any block of wax and so most molecules of wax come into
intimate contact with the water. Therefore any water soluble
contaminant has a good chance of being dissolved in the run-off water
that settles to the bottom of the collecting vessel and the steam at
100° C has a sterilising effect, so overall it is a fairly
efficient process.
Another benefit of this process is that the wax cannot
come into contact with anything that is above 100° C and so no
discolouration can occur.
There is only one drawback with this equipment and that is
the amount of water that is left in the beeswax. However it can be
removed fairly easily the next time that the blocks are melted by
using a melting method that keeps the wax out of contact with water...
solar extractor, warming cabinet, hot air blower Etc. Early removal
of this entrapped moisture also aids the translucency of the wax.
The area that it is used in needs to be well ventilated as
large amounts of steam will escape apart from that which condenses
and does the work.
The original design had a narrow cone of mesh up the centre
of the wax basket to allow greater penetration of steam, but I have
never used this feature myself.
Written... 10 February 2002
