THl'-, BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



345 



We now endorse the steam-heated 

 uncapping--knife, but we could not use it 

 for fast work until I got to work and 

 made a regular boiler with flues which 

 would hold in a pressure of perhaps two 

 pounds. On trying- to use it at first we 

 used a steam-tight bucket without flues 

 on a single-hole-burner gasoline stove, 

 but could not get heat enough to carry 

 the knife quickly through a solid capped 

 comb of thick honey. The boiler shown 

 in Fig. 5 has an asbestos covering to hold 

 heat, and the one-inch flues which come 

 through it from the bottom to the top 

 are partly covered with strips of tin so 

 the heat from the gasoline stove is forced 

 to spread around a little and enter all 

 the tubes. The water gauge 1 put on 

 after the boiler went dry once, and the 

 solder was melted. The boiler is made 

 of No. 40 galvanized iron with galvanized 

 iron pipe soldered in it for flues. It con- 

 sumes nearly a gallon of water per hour; 

 and if an air-cooled engine were used, 

 the boiler would have to be larger than 

 the two gallon size, for in our case we 

 can dip hot water from the engine tank 

 to fill it. and wichin a minute or so it is 

 boiling again. Refilled with cold water 

 it would take it about ten minutes to 

 boil again. This boiler does not sit flat 

 on the stove, but has the bottom soldered 

 in it about 1 '2 inches from the bottom 

 to catch the heat so it will not spread 

 out and come up around the outside. 



While we have used a steam-heated 

 knife considerably, I don't know how 

 much steam-pressure was employed. I 

 doubc if it was as much as one pound. 

 I am at a loss to know why Mr. Metcalfe 

 should have needed so much steam. 

 Possibly it was because his honey was 

 thicker, and, it is likely, much colder. 

 Ours had been warmed in a small room 

 by using an oil heater. To generate the 

 steam we used a square gallon tin can 

 with a tube soldered to the screw cap. 

 A water gauge to show the height of the 

 water is all right, but there is another 

 sort of a make-shift plan. Attach a 

 string to the ring in the top of the can, 

 pass it up over a small pulley in the 

 ceiling, above the can, and attach a 

 weight to the end. Let this weight be 

 such that when the water has boiled 

 •down until it is only an inch deep in the 

 can, the weight will lift the can off the 

 stove. To replenish the can with hot 



water, we kept a pail of water standing 

 on top of the stove in the oven where we 

 warmed up our honey for extracting. 



GRAVITY 5TRAINLR5. 



Something in Regard to Their Size. 



I have never used a gravity strainer, 

 but I have been told that they were used 

 successfully in California. Mr. E. D. 

 Townsend also used one successfully last 

 year, as has already baen mentioned in 

 the Review. it seems, however, that not 

 every one has found them desirable, as 

 Mr. 0. B. Metcalfe, of Mesilla Park, New 

 Mexico, wrote to Gleanings as follows: 

 We did not find the gravity strainer satis- 

 factory for our work. If any one is 

 figuring on making a gravity strainer 1 

 think he would do well to set out a tank 

 of his honey, and time it to see how long 

 it takes to set'.le. If it takes ten hours 

 to settle as clear as he wants it, and he 

 can use one that holds as much honey as 

 his extractor will throw running all the 

 time in ten hours, it will work. Other- 

 wise, the current will be so swift that it 

 will carry the trash with it clear to the 

 gate. That is, if I am right in my under- 

 standing of the method, the tank must 

 be large enough so that a certain amount 

 of honey coming from the extractor must 

 take as long to get to the gate as it 

 would have taken it to settle. I mention 

 this because, if I had read a similar 

 statement, it would have saved me seven 

 dollars and a lot of time. 



If I am correctly informed, the honey 

 in the region to which New Mexico be- 

 longs is much thicker, more "gummy" 

 than the honey here in Michigan, and 

 might be much slower in clearing itself 

 by gravity, but the theory set forth by 

 our friend Metcalfe certainly seems 

 reasonable. Tnis year we are run- 

 ning our honey into a big tank that will 

 hold a day's extracting, allowing it to 

 stand over night, and canning it the next 

 day. We fi.nd that this plan is really a 

 gravity strainer, if we care to m.ake 

 it such, and results in a very uniform 

 grade of honey. Some of these things 

 can be correctly decided only by actual 

 trial. 



