174 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



a piece of leather abo at H by 3|, putting a 

 tack in each corner. In making bellows, 

 there will be fragments of leather left, that 

 will do for nothing else. Such valves work 

 beautifully, are absolutely air tight, and I 

 hardly know how they can get out of order. 

 The blast tube is made of tin, tapering like 

 the spout to an oil can. It is made just as 

 large, at the large end, as it can be, and be 

 driven into the board ; \ inch from the end, 

 a rib is raised, to prevent its being driven in 

 too far, and the inside is then burnished 

 down hard and close to the wood, making it 

 firm and air tight. The short tube in the 

 cone is made and attached to the cone, in 

 much the same way. 



MAKING THE BELLOWS. 



The springs shown in the figure above, 

 are made of bits of clock spring, to be 

 had of any jeweler. You can get a whole 

 clock spring for 20c, which will make 6 

 smoker springs. Bend the springs to the 

 shape shown in the cut, and rivet the end 

 to the wood, by two secure rivets. Steel 

 springs sometimes break, it is true, and 

 you can use similar ones made of brass if 

 you choose ; these never break, but they al- 

 most always lose their elasticity sooner or 

 later. For my own use, I prefer the light 

 springs called alarm springs, because they 

 are softer, and it is easier to work the bel- 

 lows. As others generally prefer a stiff 

 spring, those we sell are made that way. 

 Bend your springs so that the boards will 

 come up promptly, as far as the leather 

 will allow. To make a neat job, you should 

 put on the leather with tinned tacks, 

 about 7-16 in length. Put the boards 

 closely together at the end where the hinge 

 is, and tack one end of your long piece 

 of leather. The boards should be separated 

 at the other ends, as far as the width of the 

 leather will allow. Draw the leather close 

 up to the wood, and tack at intervals. Now 

 tack the i inch strip on for a binding ; if 

 you wish a pretty job, use red morocco for 

 this last. When your tacks are all in— I 

 would drive them a little more than i inch 



apart— you are ready to pare off the surplus 

 leather with a very sharp knife. Finish off 

 everything neatly with sandpaper, and your 

 bellows is done. The leather has cost us 10c, 

 the two boards, possibly 5c, and the spring 

 5 more. Allowing 5c for your time in tack- 

 ing on the leather and sand-papering, and 

 you have a good bellows for 25c For this 

 price, it should be as good as anything in 

 the market. 



The tin cup shown below, is 4 inches in 

 diameter, and 2A- high, and the nozzle is 

 made to shut closely over it. I prefer about 

 a i inch tube for the exit of smoke. 



Now I take considerable pride in telling 

 you howl attach the whole to the bellows, 

 damper and all, for I consider it quite an 

 invention in the way of cheapness, strength 

 and simplicity. 



SMOKER '"DISSECTED. " 



Fig. 4 represents the bottom of the smoker 



cup. The large hole in the center is to allow 

 the blast tube to come up through, and the 

 smaller ones are for 4 common screws that 

 attacli it to the bellows. 



Now we cannot screw the fire recep- 

 tacle directly on to the wood, because it 

 would burn it; but I have found by ex- 

 periment that 1-4 inch space between the 

 bottom and the wood is all that is needed, if 

 the wood is first covered with a sheet of tin. 

 Accordingly, we cut another plain piece of 

 tin, exactly like Fig. 4, holes and all; between 

 the two, we put short tin tubes, made by roll- 

 ing up short strips 1-4 inch wide. These short 

 tubes, shown at Fig. 6, are made so that a 

 screw will just go through them. 



With the old Simplicity smokers, much 

 complaint has been made about burned fin- 

 gers, when getting the top off to replenish 

 the fuel. You will observe in this that we 

 have made a door, with a slide to close it, 

 and this slide also opens and closes the 

 damper. It is simply a ring of tin, sur- 

 rounding the first receptacle, having a wood- 

 en handle to turn it by. Should this ring 

 ever turn too hard, the screws may be taken 

 from the handle, and a piece of pasteboard 

 inserted so as to make it a little larger. 



