A 14-year-old boy from Coimbatore has invented a honey wax separator. The invention is earning him accolades and prizes.

After M. Tenith Adithyaa, from Chennai, a young boy with 17 inventions under his name, it is now P. Jawahar Raja, who is making headlines with his new and easy technique to separate the wax from honey. Jawahar Raja was in Class VIII when he invented the device.

Jawahar’s father, A. Parthipan, is a bus conductor and collects honey as a hobby. His son used to accompany him, which is when he observed his father throwing away the wax after collecting honey. Jawahar began to think about creating an equipment to separate wax and honey by heating the wax with solar energy.

The traditional method of burning fire near the bee-hive and collecting the honey is very time consuming and unsafe if not done properly. But, the new honey wax separator, which took 6 months to make, requires no manpower or burning. There is zero wastage of wax too.

Jawahar used a steel box, coated it with black paint (since the colour absorbs heat), placed a thermocole sheet to aid the evaporation, and pieces of jute materials to block the air from escaping. He placed a tray above with convex lenses on its sides so the sun rays would fall on it. A bowl is placed below so the wax that is heated in water is poured into this box and collected. Sometimes, the wax gets stuck on the sides of the box. To prevent this, a polythene cover is placed inside so it slides through that and gets collected in the bowl easily. About 7 kg of wax and 1 kg of honey can be collected in this method. Honey collectors have approached him to learn more about his technique.

The wax is used for a number of purposes like making moulds, gold jewellery, for preparing Siddha medicines, for polishing furnitures, in ships, and in printing of silk saris.

Jawahar’s father, now a honey collecting enthusiast, has conducted almost 2000 awareness programmes on bees and honey collection. His next class will be in Tirupur.

The boy is presently doing his 11th grade at a school in Gobichettipalayam. He was given a cash prize of Rs.5000 by the Government. He has also won the Young Achiever Award in 2012, and the Young scientist Award organized by Space Kids India in the year 2013.