GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



piece seetior.s we shall have to divide the 

 honor among four or five different people. 

 Mr. James G. Gray, still of Medina, made 

 the first practical machine for making one- 

 piece sections. Later, machines for turning 

 out section honey-boxes in lots of one hun- 

 dred thousand a day were the invention of 

 our Mr. George L. Howk. 



The Porter bee-escape is one of the best 

 little inventions that have been brought out. 

 It is one of the few patented inventions 

 that survived. It is used very largely by 

 comb-honey producers. 



Queen-excluders in the form of perforat- 

 ed zinc and spaced wires are inventions of 

 merit. In connection with these we find 

 entrance-guards and Alley traps that are 

 useful. The Alley trap is another patented 

 invention that sui-vived. 



The new steam uncapping-knife is an in- 

 vention that is coming more and more into 

 use. The Peterson capping-melter for melt- 

 ing cappings as fast as they come from the 

 knife gives promise of being one of the 

 inventions that will last; for it enables a 

 competent man who follows dii-ections to 

 melt his cappings and separate the honey 

 from the cappings immediately; so that 

 when the day's work is done he will have 

 his honey separated from the cappings, and 

 the cappings made into wax ready for use. 



Mr. Arthur C. Miller was the discoverer 

 or the inventor of the principle that is now 

 used in all modern foundation-fasteners 

 using a hot plate; yet, strangely enough, 

 not one of these fasteners bears his name. 

 Mr. Miller was also the inventor of two or 

 three different uncapping-machines, and of 

 a steam-heated uncapping-knife. If he had 

 applied for letters-patent on this kind of 

 knife it would liave been granted him, and 

 he would be to-day considered the inventor, 

 as he really is, of the steam-heated uncap- 

 ping-knife. 



An invention that gives promise is the 

 Ferguson uncapping-machine. It has been 

 tried in an experimental way, and some of 

 its friends believe it will save a large amount 

 of time over the old way with an uncap- 

 ping-knife. 



Mr. T. r. Bingham and Mr. Hethering- 

 ton were really the inventors of the modern 

 uncapping-knife popularly known as the 

 Bingham. The Bingham-Hetherington prin- 

 ciple is now used in all uncapping-knives, 

 wliether steam-heated or plain. 



No one seems to have invented the dou- 

 ble-walled packed hive for outdoor winter- 

 ing; but A. I. Root was, perhaps, in con- 

 nection with Mr. J. H. Townley, the first 

 to apply the principle of chaff packing in 

 double walls. As chaff is not now obtain- 



able, other packing material is being used. 

 Langstroth in the early 50's used double 

 hives but not packed. 



In the early 80's there were a hoard of 

 inventions relating to feeders, foundation - 

 fasteners, and reversing attachments for 

 movable frames, nearly all of which died 

 a natural death because they were imprac- 

 ticable and only increased the cost of man- 

 agement. When a good brother has been 

 carried away with the invention of a feed- 

 er, foundation-fastener, or a scheme for 

 wiring frames, or reversing frames, we al- 

 most feel sorry for him — almost as much 

 so as for the man who has invented a new 

 hive wliich lie Ihoroiighly believes is going 

 to revolutionize all methods of management. 

 While I do not class all inventors of feed- 

 ers, fasteners, and hives as belonging to the 

 crowd of ignoramuses, I am compelled to 

 believe that most inventions relating to 

 modern bee culture are not worth the paper 

 that it takes to illustrate and describe them. 

 This seems pretty hard on the aveiage api- 

 cultural inventor; but if one will look 

 through the Patent Office and inspect the 

 list of 2000 and more of hive patents and 

 bee-appliances, and then remember that 

 only three. or four of these have survived, 

 he will see that my statement is not far 

 from coiTect. 



Among the later hive inventions that have 

 merit is the Aspinwall hive, based on the 

 principle designed to prevent swarming. 

 Whether this will ever come into general 

 use remains to be seen; but its cost of con- 

 struction, and the large number of extra 

 parts that must be manipulated at intervals, 

 will probably prevent this hive from dis- 

 placing the standard hives in use to any 

 gi'eat extent. The swarming problem is not 

 a serious one in the production of extracted 

 honey; and while probably three-fourths if 

 not four-fifths of all the honey produced in 

 the world is extracted, it will be seen that 

 there will be a very limited demand at best 

 for non-swarming hives. 



In the way of minor inventions or im- 

 provements, rather, I may mention the 

 omission of porticos on hives; and of bevel 

 edges between the parts of the hives. A 

 hive plain and simi)le, with a detachable 

 bottom-board and a plain simple cover, is 

 much more workable than some of the com- 

 plicated affairs of the early days with moth- 

 traps, porticos, etc. It is another improve- 

 ment to have the hive body and supers of 

 the same dimensions and the same depth, 

 except in the case of half-depth supers, 

 which are really multiples of the full-depth. 

 In a word, the modern improved hive is 

 made up of multiples of parts that will fit 



