50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



floating-, and the wax will stand one inch 

 above the surface of the honeJ^ You see it 

 is just a mattei- of weight; 2 parts of the 

 hone_v are as heavy as 3 parts of the wax, 

 hence the wax carries its surface clear 

 above the honej', just as a cork floats a 

 considerable part of its bulk above water. 

 It matters not whether the wax is liquid or 

 solid. It is bound to float just the same. 

 A third of its depth will stand above the 

 honey, and the rest will be submerged. 



Now look at Fig. 1. This represents the 

 separator as it appears in a general outline 

 view. This is placed under the drip as it 

 runs from the pan supporting the mixture 

 of wax and honey-cappings, broken or anj' 

 kind of comb. The first to flow from the 

 melting combs will be honey, dropping into 

 the separator at A, the larger of the two 

 compartments. The partition between these 

 compartments does not reach quite to the 

 bottom b}^ about '^ inch, hence the hone^' 

 will pass under and rise in both compart- 

 ments alike. 



Look at the outlet for honey, and you will 

 see that it is deeper froin the top than the 

 wax-outlet; and so when the honey rises to 

 the opening it flows out, and will continue 

 to flow as long as it pours into the other 

 compartment, passing under the partition. 

 The wax will begin to come shortly, and, 

 being so much lighter than the honey, will 

 begin to rise or pile up in compartment A. 

 No matter what amount of wax falls into 

 the honey, it keeps rising above and settling 

 below the level of the honey-outlet; '3 the 

 depth of the body of wax is above and ^3 

 below; thus it increases until it flows out at 

 its own overflow-outlet, and thereafter main- 

 tains its position, becoming neither deeper 

 nor shallower. As long as wax and honey 

 continue to flow in. the wax floats in its 

 own compartment; and the honej', being so 

 much heaver, sinks right through the wax 

 and comes up and out at its own level. If 

 wax stops coming, that body of wax in com- 

 partment A just remains as it is, neither 

 less nor more, and honey may pour in all 

 day, but will pass through and out at its 

 own door; and, likewise, should honev stop 

 coming, but wax continue to flow, the hone_v 

 in the separator remains stationary, and the 

 wax overflows into its own place. There is 

 no limit; the two must separate and flow 

 their own way when they come into the sep- 

 arator, whether it is tons or pounds. 



There should be a check or dam to keep 

 back the shungum that would wash down 

 into the separator. There is iilwaj'S more 

 or less of sediment that will get down; but 

 if the cocoons and more bulk}' foreign mat- 

 ter are kept back the fine sediment will be 

 found accumulated between the honey and 

 wax; and when the remnant of wax cools 

 and is removed the sediment comes with it. 

 This little contrivance I count as a valu- 

 able adjunct to any solar, and maj' be used 

 to advantage in many places. I have made 

 mj^ solar with one end for all sorts of triishy 

 combs, and the other end for melting cap- 

 ings, candied sections, new broken combs, 



and any clean combs that may contain 

 honey suitable for table use that can not 

 well be separated in the extractor. Cap- 

 pings or broken combs placed in the solar 

 will very soon release the honey and let it 

 run into the separator, and from there it 

 will soon be in a tank or receptacle imder- 

 neath, and away froin the heat and light. 

 I have sold many hundred pounds for table 

 use that has been through the solar and 

 separator. The fact is, the separator is a 

 sort of strainer, acting on the specific-grav- 

 ity plan, and does its work w'hen the honey 

 is quite warm and thin, so that it separates 

 freely, the impurities floating up next to the 

 wax. This idea of a strainer has been 

 published in this journal, but I do not take 

 the time to hunt up when or by whom. 



For cooling and caking the wax, I use the 

 Rauchfuss idea of a series of small pans 

 with tin overflow from one to the other. 

 The Root Co. is now putting out the same 

 thing with their solars. The honej', besides 

 being strained by the gravity' process in 

 the separator, passes below into a tank, 

 and there, while still warm and thin, goes 

 through another gravitj'-straining process; 

 and, if not yet satisfactorily done, can be 

 drawn from there and put through cheese- 

 cloth or other strainer. 



My separator, which has handled about 

 a thousand pounds of wax and over a ton 

 of honey this summer, is ver}' well repre- 

 sented in Fig. 2. The bottom is about 2x7 

 inches, the top about 6xQ, and the depth 

 about 7 inches. There should be at the very 

 least an inch from the bottom of the body of 

 the wax to the bottom of the partition C. 

 That will make sure that neither wax nor 

 sediment gets under to float out with the 

 honey. The flaring shape is to make the 

 wax remnant easily removable when cooled, 

 and to get the necessary depth without hav- 

 ing an imdue amount of honey in the sepa- 

 rator, which must be there all the time. 

 Possibly a much smaller arrangement will 

 do as well; and if so, the honey and wax 

 remnants always left over from one day 

 to the next would be very nominal indeed. 

 I think mine carries less than 2 pounds of 

 wax, and it has handled well nigh 200 

 pounds in a daj' — would handle much more 

 if it could be melted and delivered to it. 

 Each morning the wax remnant should be 

 removed and put back to remelt. This 

 keeps the sediment from accuinulating. The 

 honey remnant need not be changed for 

 days or weeks. 



Brethren, this is a decided success. I 

 feel that I have at last developed st least 

 one invention that will be useful to apicul- 

 ture. Mj' next article will deal with the 

 construction of solar wax-extractors, point- 

 ing out wherein the present construction 

 method is at fault. Like this separator, 

 when you see how to build a solar, you will 

 wonder why j'ou did not think of it before. 



[You say this idea of a strainer has been 

 published in this journal before. You 

 probably refer to what is known as the G. 



