1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



109 



tight covering. This covering I made of 

 common bhick sheet iron. Boiler iron, flag- 

 stone, or cement would be better, because 

 the thin iron rusts out too quicklj'. I laid 

 the iron on the brick in mortar, then brick 



INSIDE VIEW OF AlKINS SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. 

 Shows wax-pan in the east, and also wax and honey separator, 

 and two cooling-pans. 



and mortar on this again. This iron is 

 made to pitch or slope toward the pit from 

 all directions, just enough to cause any 

 wax, water, or honey that might get in on 

 it to run out; otherwise, when hot the wax 

 or honey will burn and smoke. 



Now I come to a part that there should 

 be no mistake in — the arrangement of the 

 furnace. Make the smoke and fire chamber 

 plenty deep — don't make the mistake of get- 

 ting it too low or shallow. Make the fire- 

 box and grates as close to the ground as 

 you can get them, and still have an ash-pit 

 under; then have the opening into the chim- 

 ney at least six or eight inches higher than 

 the top of the furnace-door, and the smoke- 

 tight floor over all several inches higher 

 than the opening into the flue. If the open- 

 ing into the flue be made at the same le\el 

 as the furnace-door, the smoke will b:ick 

 out at the door everj' time a fire i.s started. 

 You can not get the door to the furnace too 

 much below the point at which the smo]-:e 

 enters the flue, and there should be no 

 point between the flue and furnace as low 

 as the top of the furnace-door. The smoke- 

 tight floor between the melting-pans should 

 he several inches above the point at which 

 the smoke enters the flue, because then the 

 hottest air will hold right up against the 

 lloor. This conserves the heat and save? 

 wasting the flue unnecessarily. Arranged 

 thus, there will be no difficulty about the 

 draft when the fire is started; and, once 

 heated and a slow fire kept going, it re- 

 mains hot all day. After I get the fire go- 

 ing in the morning I put in a good suppl}' 

 of coal and shut tight the draft, at least 



tight enough that the fire burns slowly all 

 da}'. Five to ten cents' worth of coal will 

 run it all da}', and adds verj^ materially to 

 the quantity of work done in a day. 



Right over the fire-box there will be in- 

 tense heat; and to prevent the 

 burning of wax and honey at 

 that point, there should be a 

 check or break — that is, a dou- 

 ble, treble, or even quadruple 

 floor. I accomplish this by 

 putting in two or three extra 

 floors above the fire-grate be- 

 fore putting on the final smoke- 

 tight floor. 



I would call attention to the 

 fact that, with the length east 

 and west, and but a verj' short 

 width north and south, the sun 

 shines in about as tnany hours 

 as it would be effective were 

 the machine faced about from 

 time to time to front the sun ; 

 and also to the fact that, with 

 a moderate slope to the melting- 

 pans, there is no shadow in the 

 top patt of the pit until the sun 

 has gotten so low as to have 

 little melting power. Also to 

 the fact that, when there has 

 been a fire beneath, there is so 

 much heat in the brick walls 

 that the wax remains liquid as 

 long as the sun will continue to melt under 

 the most favorable conditions, and this 

 keeps the whole interior hot, and favorable 

 to the best cooling and caking of the wax. 

 In operating this solar I put in a larj;e 



Looking south out of the house into tlie solar shows 

 melting-pan, wax and honey extractor, and, beneath 

 the separator and cooler, the honey-tank. 



