134 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



Mr. Bull — If you use the presn you 

 will not lose much wax. 



Mr. Dadant — Last fall at this meet- 

 ing, Mr. Cavanagh and I had quite an 

 argument about the different kinds of 

 presses we used; I used the Hershiser 

 and he the Hatch. I asked him ^o send 

 me all of his slumgum from his Hatch 

 press. He finally agreed to send it to 

 me. 



We have steam heat that we turn in- 

 to the press, without having to use any 

 fire under it, and it is convenient be- 

 cause you can turn your heat the 

 minute you want to. He sent two 

 barrels of slumgum; from one I secured 

 25 lbs. of beeswax, and from the other, 

 33 lbs. 



I sent him $4.58 for one batch and 

 $7.50 for the other. That was just the 

 slumgum from the Hatch press. 



My contention is this: The Her- 

 shiser — not that I am trying to push 

 the Hershiser press — but the Hershiser 

 has the old combs under water; 

 wax is lighter than water. The minute 

 you relase that wax it goes to the top. 



With the Hatch press, as I under- 

 stand it, you melt your combs and pour 

 them in sacks and squeeze it. I do 

 not care how good an operator you are, 

 some of that wax is not going to come 

 out. 



Mr. Dadant — With the Hatch press, 

 as I understand it, you do not heat your 

 combs except before you put them in; 

 there is no heat around your press at 

 all; you are bound to have some wax 

 left in that slumgum. 



We have an old cider press but in- 

 stead of the wooden part we have steam 

 coils. That is one thing that the 

 Hershiser does do, it gets clear through 

 the whole thing; every bit of that wax 

 will go out. We have saved slumgum 

 from the Hershiser press and tried to 

 run it through again and never got a 

 bit of wax, and I have not seen this 

 true of slumgum from any other press 

 that runs under water. 



It stands to reason that, if it is un- 

 der water, the minute your wax is re- 

 leased it goes to the top and never gets 

 back into your slumgum. Wax at thirty 

 cents a pound is worth saving. 



Mr. Bull — If you run the slumgum 

 once through the Hatch press you are 

 going to get some, but if you run it the 

 second time you will not. 



Mr. Dadant — Did you ever try burn- 

 ing the slumgum? 



Mr. Bull — Yes; it usually varies; you 



cannot get it dry enough to burn. The 

 second time you can make day's wages, 

 counting your time at $2.00 a day. You 

 have to operate that press right. I 

 have very little wax left; most all the 

 wax runs immediately out of the press. 



Mr. Wheeler — I put my frames in 

 and steam them until they melt down; 

 then put them in the press afterwards. 

 I use the old scheme that Mr. Hutchin- 

 son used to use — putting the frames 

 into a basket and letting the combs 

 melt down; take your frames out and 

 shake them off, and let what wax will 

 run through. The slumgum is in the 

 receiver. After you get enough slum- 

 gum, put in the press and press it out. 

 I have tried putting into a sack and 

 cutting out the frames and I never 

 made a success of it; it seems to hang 

 to the sack and boards and everything 

 else. I heat the old . combs up with 

 steam instead of hot water. 



Mr. Bull — There is no doubt there are 

 lots of better ways than I = am doing 

 but I handle a few boilers full of wax. 

 The Hatch press costs $6.00. 



Mr. Rattig — Do I understand you 

 press your wax undei- water? 



Mr. Dadant — The combs. The press 

 is a square can full of water; when you 

 press down, the wax floats to' the top; 

 runs out in the spout. 



Mr. Prance — I have had quite a bit of 

 experience in rendering up old combs 

 over the state in the last twenty years. 

 I have never seen a wax press that will 

 get practically all of the wax as does 

 the Hershiser press. The principle in- 

 volved in the Hershiser press is excel- 

 lent." If you take a sponge and put 

 one drop of ink in it and put it in 

 water and rinse it, your water is black; 

 put it in again and you will finally get 

 it all out. The idea is, rinsing and re- 

 rinsing all the time under hot water; 

 but, as Mr. Bull says, the difference in 

 the cost is an item. 



I have used more of. the Hatch 

 presses, for the reason it is easier for 

 me to take around over the state; but, 

 if I have to take the ordinary condi- 

 tions as I find them in many places, I 

 find that the slumgum is mixed with 

 wax. 



In one place where we were in a 

 hurry, I told the party that there was a 

 lot of wax in the slumgum and that it 

 would pay him to run it over; it would 

 have paid him many tinaes over $2.00 

 per day in that lot. 



We have tried at home to burn the 





