EXTE ACTOR. 



184 



EXTEACTOR. 



vi, or lay a plank on the floor to give tlie right 

 lioig-ht, wliieh is the way T do wlien my wife uncaps. 

 r know many will think this box unnecessarily 

 large. I will tell you why I think it is not. When 

 uncapping- over a round can like Dadant's, the cap- 

 pings fall on top of tho.se taken off earlier in the 

 day; and when the can is half full the honey has to 

 pass through such a pile of cappings that it takes a 

 long time for all to run out ; and when you put the 

 caiipings in the sun extractor they are heavy with 

 honey. With this box, when a pile of cappings accu- 

 mulates under the knife we take a four-tined fork 

 and pitch them over to the other end, where they 

 may drain for 4 or 6 days. There is a small stream 

 of honey running out of the box all the time, day 

 and night, during the extracting time; and when the 

 cappings go into the sun extractor they are almost 

 dry. I think it pays well for the extra space in the 

 box, because all the honey which goes into the sun 

 extractor is spoiled for the market. 



J. F. McTntyre. 



THE TOWNSEND UNCAPFING-BOX. 



Mr. E. D. Townsend, of Remus, Mich., 

 has made an improvement in the Mclntyre 

 uncapping-box, and we hereby submit a cut 

 and description of it as 

 well as a cut and descrip- 

 tion of his honey-strainer 

 and weighing-machine: 



Our iNIclntyre uncapping- 

 box Is made of galvanized 

 steel, and is 4 ft. long, 2 ft. 

 high, 2 ft. wide, as shown in 

 the engraving. The slatted 

 frame work at the bottom is 

 made a little smaller than the 

 can so that it may be easily 

 removed to be washed. As 

 there is only a I'j-inch space 

 iindei- this frame for honey 

 stoi'uge, we leave the gate 

 open all the time so that 

 nearly all of the room in the 

 tank is available for the stor- 

 age of cappings, as it should 

 be. 



The engraving does not show 

 the frame at the top correctly, 

 for the long side-pieces should 

 he close enough together so 

 that the frames can hang be- 

 tween them as though they 

 were in the hives. After the 

 lione.y is extracted, the combs 

 may be placed back in this 

 rack ; but the principal value 

 of the arrangement consists in 

 providing a place where the 

 uncapped combs may be hung 

 to drip before they are extracted, for in tliis way no 

 extra apparatus is needed. 



The two short pieces of the framework at the top 

 should be nailed on the bottom of the long side- 

 pieces about 1>4 inches from either end. It can be 

 seen that, when the long side-pieces rest on top of 

 the tank, the short cross-pieces fit just inside, keep- 

 ing the framework from sliding either way, and yet 

 allowing it to be easily remov'cd when the cappings 



are taken out. The metal pieces containing nail- 

 points can be tacked on in any position to suit the 

 convenience of the operator. 



We have vised many different designs of untap- 

 ping-boxes, but none seem to me quite so conven- 

 ient as this Mclntyre box. It will hold all of the 

 cappings from one extracting in a yard of ordiniiry 

 size. We use a six-tined short-handled fork for 

 handling the cappings, and each morning the dry 

 cappings from the day before are pitched up to- 

 ward one end of the tank, and in this way the hotu-y 

 from the new cappings does not have to drain 

 through the dry ones over and over again as it won Id 

 if we were to uncap on top of the cappings left from 

 the day before. In one instance we had more cap- 

 pings than we could keep in the tank, and a sugar- 

 barrel with a perforated bottom was set over a gal- 

 vanized steel washtub, and the dry cappings pitched 

 into it. In this way the capacity of the tank may be 

 siiid to be unlimited. Tbe advantage of the large 

 area of the bottom is that the lioney drains out of 

 the cappings much better if they are spread out in a 

 thin layer than it could in a deep tank where the 

 bottom is comparatively small. 



The strainer can is elevated in order to run the 

 honey from the gate into a 60-pound can set on the 

 scales. The gate is open all the time except when 



THE M'INTYRE uncapping-box as IMPROVED HY 

 E. D. TOAVNSEND. 



the cans are changed. An electrical alarm, as first 

 described by Mi'. Hutchinson, is used to give us 

 warning when the can is full— see Fig. 2. No one 

 should hesitate about trying one of these alarms, for 

 the.v are very simple. The engraving shows the 

 method of connecting the bell to the batteiy. In 

 brief, two wires run from the two posts on the bat- 

 tery to the two posts on the bell ; but one wire is 

 broken, one of the ends being fastened to the scale- 



