1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



841 



Next my neighbor, Mr. Dudley, had a six-comb 

 reversible made, with a ring- around the axle, and a 

 small chain running- from the ring to the out end 

 of each basket. The idea was, to pull up on the 

 ring and make all the baskets turn at once; but it 

 did not work. The baskets hit each other, and be- 

 came tangled almost every time you tried to re- 

 verse it; so he took the chains off and reversed the 

 baskets one at a time. Then my father-in-law, Mr. 

 Wilkin, wanted an eight-comb reversible, and con- 

 cluded to build it himself if I would help. I did so, 

 and we put up probably the first eight-comb ex- 

 tractor in the country; but the baskets had to be 

 reversed one at a time. We found that it required 

 more force to throw the honey out when the combs 

 made a large circle than it did when the circle was 

 smaller, and the machine made the work harder 

 than a four-comb. To illustrate: When I was a boy 

 we made what we called a " whirligig " by boring a 

 hole in the center of a plank and placing it on a 

 post about three feet high, and driving a pin down 



m'intyre's reversible extractor. 

 through the hole in the plank into a hole in the top 

 of the post. One boy would get on each end of the 

 plank, and a third would push it around; if the 

 plank was short, the boy pushing could make the 

 other boys fly off the end of the plank in spite of all 

 they could do to hang on; but if the plank was 

 long, he could not throw them off. After trying all 

 sizes up to eight combs, I would take a four-comb 

 in preference to any other size, at the same price. 



Then Mr. Stanley came out with his patent auto- 

 matic reversible. My neighbor, Mr. Kenney, has 

 one, and it is a well-made machine, but it is not 

 quite so handy to put the combs in and take them 

 out as it is when the side of the comb is toward you, 

 and the baskets often hit each other in reversing. 



Next Mr. Squire, of Santa Barbara, Cal., came 

 out with a very simple arrangement for reversing 

 the comb-baskets all at once. He made some hard- 

 wood wheels, about three inches in diameter, with 

 two grooves around the edge, and fastened them 

 securely on the axles of the comb-baskets; then 

 put a screw in the edge of each wheel between the 

 grooves, directly under the basket; then a wire was 

 passed from one wheel to another, going around 

 each wheel once. When it came to the screw it was 

 wound around that to keep it from slipping. This 

 acted like a belt; and when one basket was turned, 

 all turned. 



Mr. Hugh Warring, of this county, improved Mr. 

 Squires' extractor by making the main axle loose, 

 putting another wheel on it and passing the wire 

 around this wheel also, which enabled the operator 

 to reverse the comb-baskets without touching them 

 by Simply reversing the crank. This extractor 

 worked well; the comb-baskets would reverse easi- 

 ly, and never touch each other; but the strain of 

 stopping and starting all came on the wire, which 

 would often break and give the bee-keeper the 

 bother of having to stop and put another on. 



One night, while thinking of this extractor, the 

 idea popped into my head how to make an extract- 

 or without either wire or wood wheels, that would 

 work the same as this one. Next morning I made a 

 wooden model to^see how it would work. The model 

 worked beautifully, and some of my friends advis- 

 ed me to get it patented. I said, " No, I will never 

 be a patent-right vender, and T don't want to go in- 

 to the manufacturing business; besides, I have 

 been greatly benefited by the ideas of others; and 

 if some one should be benefited by my idea it will 

 not grieve me a particle." But I wanted an ex- 

 tractor made that way, so I took the model down to 

 Ventura and told the tinner I would let him have it 

 on condition that, if he made the extractors to sell, 

 he should give me one of them. When I took out 

 the model and gave it a few turns, he said, " When 

 do you want your extractor?" He made and sold 

 them with the Stanley standing beside them. Most 

 customers took mine because they reversed so 

 much easier and nicer, and the baskets never 

 touched each other, although Stanley's was much 

 better made. The idea that struck me was to turn 

 each basket from the center axle by means of a 

 small lever running out on the arm that supports 

 the basket. The frame that holds the baskets is 

 loose on the center axle, but supported on the same 

 by a collar shrunk on near the lower end. I inclose 

 a drawing of the reversing gear, which will help to 

 make it clear. The wheel in the middle is keyed 

 fast to the main axle. The little half-wheels on the 

 outside are fastened securely to the axle of the 

 baskets. They should be two inches in diameter, 

 and the one in the center four inches. The levers 

 between, with the cogs on each end, should be 

 malleable cast, and have a little hub in the middle 

 where the pivot comes up through that they turn 

 on. They vary in length according to the width of 

 the comb to be extracted. As the gear stands in 

 the diagram, the comb-baskets would be pointing 

 to the center, or standing directly over the levers, 

 and their inner edge should come about even with 

 the edge of the middle wheel. J. F. McIntyre. 



Fillmore, Cal., Sept. 2, 1889. 



Friend M., you are perhaps aware that I 

 made the first metal honey-extractor in the 

 world— at least so far as T know. For sev- 



