1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



389 



alone, as you and I do, he was obliged first to 

 cut free aud take out the first nine before he 

 could reach the tenth. L-iugstroth gave us a 

 system that, compared with this or anj' previ- 

 ous system, was revolutionary, making the 

 work of bee keeping so easy that, if it were 

 taken away from me to-day, and I were al- 

 lowed the benefits of any one or all of the oth- 

 er systems, earlier or later, I should not be 

 likely to continue a bee-keeper. I think you 

 will now see that there is no quarrel between 

 us as to the credit due Father Langstroth. 



It detracts nothing from Langstroth's glory 

 to give Dzierzon his full meed of praise. You 

 refer me to Americcui Bee Journal, Vol. I., p. 

 14. I do not find there the sentence you 

 quote, but it is none the less true. I do find 

 there this sentence that you have partially 

 quoted : ' ' The next invention, and that which 

 alone received general approval and accept- 

 ance in Europe, was Dzierzon's movable bar 

 hive, first publicly announced in 1845." Please 

 note that, although this was a bar hive, it was 

 an improvement on all previous y>a;«d' hives. 

 Note, too, that it was the only system that re- 

 ceived general acceptance, and especially the 

 fact that it did receive general acceptance. 

 Putting that in different words, it means that 

 Dzierzon gave to German bee-keepers a mova- 

 ble-comb hive that went into general use, and 

 meant for them a grand step forward — was, 

 indeed, a revolution. 



You will say that Langstroth's hive was 

 ever so much better than Dzierzon's. Cer- 

 tainly. As I have shown, I hold that with 

 still stronger emphasis than you. But that 

 does not change the fact that Dzierzon gave 

 the Germans a movable-comb hive that they 

 accepted and adopted, and they are in use to 

 this day. Langstroth gave us a loose hang- 

 ing frame, and we think him entitled to no 

 less credit because we now have something 

 better in the fixed-distance frame. Dzierzon 

 gave Germany the movable comb, and he is 

 entitled to no less credit because they now 

 hive something better in the Langstroth frame. 

 If Langstroth's invention had never been made 

 they would still be using Dzierzon's, as, in fact, 

 some of them are ; and we should also be us- 

 ing Dzierzon's in this country, and giving 

 Dzierzon the credit honestly due him. 



I suspect that the main trouble in the case 

 is that, in this country, we look upon Dzier- 

 zon's invention as a thing not really practical, 

 and bunch it along with those of Huber and 

 others. Instead of that it stands on a different 

 plane entirely. It was and is a practical thing, 

 and some of those who adopted it and became 

 accustomed to it can not see enough better in 

 the Langstroth invention to warrant them in 

 making a change. Please set this down as a 

 fact : Not Langstroth, but Dzierzon, gave to 

 Germany a movable comb, and later the im- 

 provement of Langstroth was introduced. Mr. 

 Samuel Wagner is quoted in Dadant's Lang- 

 stroth as saying that the best test of the value 

 of Dzierzon's system was the results ; and then 

 he tells how, after suffering a loss of more 

 than 500 colonies in one year, he made a 

 threefold increase to nearly 400 colonies. 



The latest number of Revue Internationale 



quotes with apparent approbation from Cen- 

 tralblail the statement that Dzierzon's mova- 

 ble c:)mb worked a complete revolution in 

 bee-keeping. The Revue is edited by the able 

 Edouard Bertrand, who is the publisher of the 

 French edition of Dadant's Langstroth, and 

 entirely familiar with the whole matter. 



In a nutshell the case stands thus : Lang- 

 stroth gave to America the movable comb, and 

 Dzierzon gave it to Germany. 



Going back to the original proposition, I 

 feel very sure that, if you were to make a tour 

 among German bee-keepers, you would agree 

 with me that no other living nirin has done as 

 much for bee keeping as Dzierzon. If you 

 know of one, Mr. Editor, will you kindly 

 name him? 



Marengo, 111. 



[Now that you have been confessing error, 

 and eating a little humble pie, it may be well 

 for me to do a little of the same sort of thing. 

 I was in error in stating that Dzierzon used 

 movable combs ia a top-opening hive. The 

 real facts, as I get at them, are these : 



Delia Rocca, in Greece, first introduced 

 movable combs. These were built to bars, 

 but the attachments to the combs had to be 

 cut from the sides before they could be taken 

 out. Dzierzon took this same idea, as it was 

 not practicable to cut the bottom attachments 

 in a ^c/i-opening hive, and applied it to a side- 

 opening hive, just as you state. But I do not 

 see any real invention in this, but only a very 

 slight improvement. Dzierzon did introduce, 

 probably, the idea of movable combs to the 

 German bee-keeping public, in the same way 

 that A. I. Root introduced the honey-extract- 

 or in America, although it was invented by 

 Hruschka. But there was no invention in 

 this on our part, neither was there on Dzier- 

 zon's, as I see it. Delia Rocca, as it seems to 

 me, really invented the movable bar nearly 50 

 years before Dzierzon made use of it. 



Huber, about the same time that Delia Roc- 

 ca gave his movable-comb hive to the world, 

 brought out his leaf hive, or what embodies 

 the essential principles of the " closed-end " 

 frames of the present day. — Ed.] 



dzierzon's movable-comb hive. 

 In your remarks about Dzierzon, p. 219, you 

 are right in the main points. Dzierzon never 

 invented a frame hive. Bars with combs at- 

 tached to them were used by the old Greeks. 

 This and Delia Rocca's invention were en- 

 tirely forgotten when Dzierzon, in 1845, in- 

 vented his bar hive. As the combs had to be 

 cut from the sides of the hive, he made a door 

 to it and opened it like a wardrobe. This 

 made it easier to cut the combs from the side 

 of the hive, than by handling the combs from 

 the top of the hi-ve as he did at first. This 

 hive and Dzierzjn's management of the bees 

 started a new era in bee-keeping in Germany, 

 as did the Langstroth hive in America. So 

 far it is proper to say, Dzierzon is the inventor 

 of a practical bee hive with movable combs. 

 In 1850 Baron von Berlepsch invented and 

 used a frame with a bee-space all round in 

 the same Dzierzon hive. At about the same 



