274 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



position; or, if supers of inoney are to be 

 carried out of the apiary and loaded on 

 the wagon, the smoker is still usually 

 kept in this same position, and does not 

 interfere with walking but little, if any; 

 for it has become perfectly natural for us 

 to thus carry it. 



It might be thought that it would 

 scorch the clothing when thus placed, or 

 might even heat up the flesh when the 

 fuel burned down to coals, but not so; 

 we have never had but a few slight 

 scorches and no burns at ail. 



CoRDELE, Ga . Jan. 14. 1910. 



Instructions for Using a Cappings Melter in the 

 Most Efficient Manner. 



F. R. BEUHNE. 



IE 



'R. Editor, Dear Sir:— As the in- 

 ventor of the cappings melter, 

 the working of which you des- 

 cribe in the Review of November 1909, 

 I am pleased it was a success in your 

 hands in readily disposing of all the 

 cappings one operator could produce. I 

 'have been experimenting with melters 

 for the last fifteen years, one of the 

 earliest was identical with that now 

 made by the Roots, except that it was 

 square instead of round; but I soon dis- 

 carded that and several succeeding ones. 



THE REQUISITES OF A SUCCESSFUL MELTER. 



The many experiments made convinced 

 me that what was wanted was: 1, Con- 

 tact of the cappings as they came off 

 the knife with a hot metal surface for 

 the shortest possible time sufficient to 

 melt the wax; 2, Removal of the honey 

 from the heat, slumgum and wax as 

 as soon as gravitation will separate them; 

 3, The largest possible heating surface 

 in the smallest compass. My melter, 

 when operated as it should be, answers 

 these requirements perfectly. I have 

 one at each of my three apiaries, and 

 the honey runs from the elbow tube 

 direct to the honey tan^c, and is in no 

 way impaired in flavor or color "if the 

 elbow tube is set so that only a very 

 small quantity of it is in the tray. As 

 uncapping proceeds, wax and slumgum 

 accumulate; and as wax is much lighter 



than either honey or slumgum, it does 

 not displace honey to quite the extent of 

 its volume, therefore it rises till it reaches 

 the lower wax outlet, from which it over- 

 flows perfectly clean. If the cappings 

 contain much slumgum it collects in a 

 layer between honey and wax, and, as 

 the amount increases, it also reaches the 

 level of the lower wax stud which is then 

 closed with a cork, when, after a little 

 while, the wax will overflow from the 

 upper outlet. It is all simply a question 

 of giving the elbow tube the correct 

 slant, so that a minimum of honey willl 

 be in the tray, and yet no slumgum must 

 escape with it. 



The object of the square tubes is to 

 cut the sheet of cappings into strips as it 

 falls crossways upon the tubes; the top 

 edges melting through, when the adher- 

 ing honey runs away from the wax, down 

 the inclined surfaces, and thus brings 

 the wax in contact with the hot tube. 

 The surface of the one-inch tubes is, of 

 course, four inches; and the heating 

 surface is, therefore, nearly four times 

 the area of the square of the gird of 

 tubes. 



The tray should be raised on two 

 pieces of wood to bring it up as near as 

 possible to the underside of the tubes, 

 the heat radiating from which, melts any 

 strips of wax which may have slipped 

 through, while, at the same time, the 

 bottom of the tray is kept from contact 



