At work this morning I took a picture of a bottle of some stuff called “Bone Wax.” Despite the name, it’s not actually a polishing compound… In fact, if you do a quick Google search, you’ll learn that Bone Wax is a sterile beeswax compound that is used for hemostasis of bone.
Which means practically nothing if you don’t speak medical.
Fortunately, you’ve got me here to provide a translation.
Basically, it’s skeleton spackle.
The fun thing is that the stuff was invented in 1892 by Victor Horsley, and pretty much the same stuff is still in use today. The bottle I was photographing was from 1978 and it’s still got Horsley’s name on it. Apparently, the formula hasn’t changed much in the last 111 years.
(Odd little side-note, Horsley died of heatstroke in Iraq while serving as a British Army field surgeon during World War One. It’s amazing the things you can find in online biographies.)
So… Yeah… I was going somewhere with this when I started, but I’ve forgotten where. That’s a pity too, because I was probably going to say something clever.
I’m gonna go grab some coffee and see if I can remember… It’s too darn early.