1901 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



281 



hot steam, and still in the f xtractor ; and the 

 other, pressing the refuse after it is taken 

 from the boiler or extractor. To the last 

 named, objection has been made that the 

 refuse chills or cools, or, as some have ex- 

 pressed it, "freezes," before a full pressure 

 can be exerted. Regarding this I talked with 

 Mr. J. B. Hall, who is a user of tl.e Gemmill 

 press, and he said there need be no danger of 

 the slumgum chill- 

 ing if a man under- 

 stood his business, 

 and worked rapid- 

 ly ; and, besides, 

 said he, " These lit- 

 tle screws inside of 

 the ordinary steam 

 wax-extractors are 

 too small. I want 

 something on which 

 I can work the en- 

 tire strength of my 

 arms and body. 

 With the Gemmill 

 press and its pow- 

 erful screw and 

 frame I can exert a 

 much heavier pres- 

 sure. Those other 

 things are only 

 toys." 



I have been sur- 

 prised that we here 

 in America have 



FIG. 10 — GOOLD, SHAP- 



S(.ivEY & muir's wax- 

 press.* 



hitherto made comparatively little use of the 

 principle of the steam and screw wax-press 

 combined. Even Mr. Ferris did not employ 



press was one of the first advertised on this 

 continent, and is illustrated in Fig. 10. This 

 machine was put out during the winter of 

 1899 or 1900. Knowing that Mr. Holtermann 

 had something to do with the design of this 

 machine, 1 wrote him, asking where he got 

 the idea In reply he said he thought he ob- 

 tained it from a German catalog. Wishing to 

 know more about the principle, and how ex- 

 tensively it had been used, 1 wrote to some of 

 my German friends, and in response received 

 a lot of back numbers of old German and 

 French bee-journals and German catalogs. 

 In Figs. 10, 11, 12, 1.3, 14, and 15 I have repro- 

 duced some of the cuts that are shown in the 

 publications above referred to. The earliest 

 mention of these machines to which I have 

 been referred is the " History of the Steam 

 Wax Press," in the Bienetiwirtschaftliche 

 Centralblatt for 1892, No. 22. Another early 

 reference given to me of a similar machine is 

 in the Leipzi^er Bienenzeitung, 1893, page 

 203. It is claimed in this that Haeckel, in 

 Schlath, Wiirttemberg, Germany, was the in- 

 ventor of the steam and screw wax-press. 

 Still another reference is to the combined 

 steam and wax presses described in Witzgall's 

 "The Book of the Bees." This is a most 



FIG. 12. — CARL FRITZ'S STEAM WAX-EX- 

 TRACTOR. 



it originally ; but, discovering its advantage, 

 he adopted the feature in his extractor, and is 

 now using it, I believe, in all his late ma- 

 chines. The Goold, Shapley & Muir wax- 



* I understand that the company are about to put out , 

 an improved machine. For further particulars, write 

 them at Brant ford, Ont. 



FIG. 13. — THE DIETRICH STEAM WAX-PRESS. 



magnificent work of 540 pages, and is pub- 

 lished in Stuttgart, Germany, by Eugene UU- 

 mer. The book was written in 1897. Con- 

 cerning the combined steam and screw wax- 

 pres-ses, and their use in Germany, the author 

 says: 



We will describe here only the Dietrich apparatus, 

 as the essential principles of it are the same as those 

 of all the others. It consists of an outer receptacle or 

 jacket, having fastened near the bottom a tube for 

 the purpose o.f allowing the melted wax to run out. 

 Fastened to the top of this outer receptacle is a pecul- 

 iarly shaped cover made of cast iron. Thiough the 

 middle of it passes a screw with a wheel on the upper 

 end to turn it. Inside of the outer vessel is a cylinder 



