G4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



1^ "^nikm" 



This department was suggested by one of the 

 clerks, as an opposition to the " Growlery." I think 

 I shall venture to give names in full here. 



ENOUGH TO MAKE ANYBODY "SMILE." 



of last fall has given me 10 swarms. Who would not 

 smile when they And friends so kind> Should we 

 withhold his name from print? It was W. A. House, 

 of Payetteville, NT Y". Edmund Estey. 



Clarence. Shelby Co., Mo., Nov. 29, 1879. 



It certainly was a very kind act of friend 

 H. to thus remember a customer of his who 

 had been unfortunate, and perhaps it might 

 be well for us to help bear the losses of those 

 who have been unfortunate with what they 

 have purchased of us. At the same time, 

 such liberality, if carried to too great an ex- 

 treme, may make a precedent that would 

 five some a reason for thinking that they 

 ave a right to claim damages, simply be>- 

 cause they have been unfortunate with their 

 purchases. 



GRAY'S NEW SECTION BOX AND THE 

 MACHINE FOK MAKING IT. 



ALSO SOME NEW TDEAS IN MAKING WOOD- 

 EN BOXES. 



fTfPOW often do w r e exclaim, on seeing 

 rfifj^ some new device or implement, " Why, 



' is it possible that no one ever thought 



of that before V" That was what I thought 

 when Mr. Gray showed me his new r joint for 

 sections and other boxes, illustrated on page 

 472, Dec. No. You will at once notice that 

 the principal expense in making this joint is 

 the labor involved in pushing the piece over 

 the saw to make each one of these cross cuts. 

 I said at once, that we must have a long 

 mandrel, with three saws on it, that the 

 whole number of cuts may be made at one 

 operation. Again; the piece must be push- 

 ed toward the saw exactly at right angles 

 with it. or the box will be askew, as it were. 

 To push it accurately, a slide with a cross 

 bar, like the "figure 4" I have illustrated in 

 the back Nos., must be used. Now, every 

 time this cross bar is pushed forward, it 

 must be pulled back ready to take another 

 piece, although the section need not be pull- 

 ed back at all. Years ago, I thought of an 

 endless belt with strips across it, for feeding 

 stuff up squarely to circular saws, but just 

 now, it occurred to me that a large drum, 

 with pins set in it, might answer the same 

 purpose, and need not be very expensive. 

 My idea was to have the strips lay directly 

 on the drum, as they passed under the saws; 

 but Mr. Gray and Mr. Washburn thought it 

 best to have the drum simply push the strips 

 along, and let them slide on iron tracks, 

 with steel springs to hold them tirnily down 

 in place. After they got so far. I told them 

 I wanted it made so it would take a tall pile 

 of the strips, and pick out the bottom one, 

 letting the pile drop down each time, so as 

 to- have an automatic machine that would 



" work for nothing, board itself, and not re- 

 quire any mental or moral discipline;" in 

 short, a machine that would not have to be 

 looked after nights, to see that it was not 

 visiting groceries and learning to swear, 

 smoke, chew, etc., after working hours. 

 Come to think of it, I did not add these lat- 

 ter items when I ordered the machine made, 

 but I will put them in now, so the machine 

 will understand what is expected of it. It is 

 now buzzing away while I write, and by 

 timing the zip, zip, zip," by the w r atch, I 

 find it makes just 30 sections a minute, — 

 handsomer white-basswood sections than I 

 ever saw before in my life. Here is the 

 machine: 



MACIIINE FOR MAKING THE NEW ALL-IN- 

 ONE-PIECE SECTION BOXES. 



You observe the long mandrel with its 

 three saws, and the funnel shaped hood just 

 over them. This hood is attached, by a pipe 

 which you see at its top, to our blower, or 

 exhaust fan, which takes all the sawdust 

 right out of the way, that the machine may 

 not get clogged, and that the troublesome 

 dust from the basswood may not render the 

 air in the room unwholesome and disagreea- 

 ble to the workmen. All of our saw tables 

 and planers are now arranged so as to have 

 the dust and shavings all carried, automat- 

 ically, right down into a brick room just be- 

 fore the boiler. The large drum that pushes 

 the sticks through the machine explains 

 itself, in the drawing. Right back of the 

 dust hood is the box that holds the pile of 

 sticks, or slats, and the iron arms shown 

 right in front catch the pieces as they come 

 out from under the saws. 



To get out stuff for these sections, yon 

 want the best, white, clear, basswood. Have 

 the logs sawed into plank 2iin. thick. After 

 the plank have been stuck up and seasoned ? 

 they are to be dressed on both sides, until 

 they are just Hin. We choose this thick- 

 ness, because 7 frames of them, with the 

 separators on, just till a Simplicity hive, and 

 leave Jin. for wedging up. After the plank 

 is dressed, it is cut up into bolts just 10J in. 

 long. With a cutter head to cut 3|in., wide 

 cuts are now made in these bolts of plank, 

 at the proper places to make the top and 



