DECEMBER 1, 1913 



845 



Fir!. 1. — Interior of one of R. F. Holtermann's extracting-liouses. The young man on the left is Walter 



Hull, of Connecticut. The next is Warren Munroe, of Ontario. These two were students 



with Mr. Holtermanu this last season. Glen Holtermann is shown at the extractor. 



running a trifle over 100 revolutions i)er 

 minute. 



We next took down the %-incli pipe 

 which conveyed the honey from the pump to 

 the can, and replaced it with one-inch pipe. 

 When this change was made the pump ran 

 easily with a comparatively loose belt, and 

 kept ahead of the extractor without effort. 

 On one occasion when swinging the horizon- 

 tal pipe to the next tank we found it was 

 not quite long enough to reach. We threw 

 the pump belt off, therefore, while we were 

 putting on a longer pipe, the extractor be- 

 ing kept running all the while. It took 

 about ten minutes to rig up the longer pipe ; 

 and during this time the level of the honey 

 in the extractor-can had risen to a point 

 where it was almost touching the bottom of 

 the reel. In less than fifteen minutes after 

 the belt was put on, the pump had " caught 

 up " and we could see the bottom of the 

 extractor again. 



It was with a great deal of interest that I 

 watched the operation of this twelve-frame 

 extractor; for it has been suggested more 

 than once, that, since centrifugal force is 

 greater closer to the center, other conditions 

 being equal, it is possibly a mistake to use 

 extractors that are so large. However, it is 

 perfectly clear in my mind that, since the 



velocity of the combs is so very much great- 

 er in the larger cans at a given reel speed, 

 this more than offsets the slight disadvan- 

 tage of having the combs further from the 

 center of the reel. Practical proof of this 

 was not lacking; for this twelve-frame ex- 

 tractor emptied the combs in less time than 

 I thought was possible; that is, it required 

 less time for a set of combs, considering the 

 lieavy body of the honey, than any extract- 

 or that I have ever had any thing to do with. 

 In order to keep the extractor moving as 

 much of the time as possible, Mr. Holter- 

 mann has two men ready the instant the 

 I'eel comes to a stop, one to take out the 

 empty combs and the other to i^ut in the 

 full ones to be extracted. I found that the 

 average time required to change the twelve 

 combs was fifteen seconds. Although the 

 honey had just been taken from the hives, 

 so that it was quite warm, it was neverthe- 

 less of very good body, and the average 

 time that the combs were whirled was two 

 and a half minutes. This means that in 

 every two minutes and three quarters, or m 

 every three minutes at the most, a twelve- 

 frame super of honey was extracted. The- 

 oretically this would figure, counting five 

 pounds to a comb, something over 1000 

 pounds per hour. Taking into considera- 



