3S8 THB bke-keepbr's guide; 



dies •with concentrated lye the wax is not injured, and sticking 

 is prevented. Mr. Jones uses soapsuds with excellent success 

 for the same purpose. Think of two men running through 

 fifty pounds of foundation in an hour I That is what I saw 

 two men do at Mi'. Jones', with a Dunham machine, by use of 

 soapsuds. The man who put in the wax sheets was not 

 delayed at all. The kind of soap should be selected with care. 

 Mr. Root prefers common starch to either lye or soapsuds. 

 New machines are more liable to trouble with sticking than 

 are those that have been used for some time. It is said that 

 dipping the sheets '.n salt brine also prevents this troublesome 

 sticking. Mr. Baldridge gives this hint, but conceals the 

 name of the discoverer. Mr. Weed now secures the wax in, 

 continuous sheets, wound on a spool, and these are fed con 

 tinuously. So the old, sticking trouble is done away with. 

 Mr. Root says three-fourths of our foundation and one-half of 

 that of the world is now made by this new Weed process. 



TO SECURE THE WAX SHEETS. 



The wax should be melted in a double-walled tin vessel, 

 with water between the walls, so that in no case would it be 

 burned or overheated. 



To form the sheets, a dipping-board of the width and 

 length of the desired shepts is the best. It should be made of 

 pine, and should be true and very smooth. This is first dipped 

 into cold water — salt in the water makes it easier to remove 

 the sheets— then one end is dipped quickly into the melted 

 wax, then raised till dripping ceases — only a second — this end 

 dipped into the cold water, grasped by means of a dextrous 

 toss with the hands, and the other end treated the same way. 

 The thing is repeated, if necessary, till the sheet is thick 

 enough. Twice dipping is enough for brood-combs, once for 

 sections. We now only have to shave the edges with a sharp 

 knife, and we can peel off two fine sheets of wax. As the Weed 

 machine forms continuous sheets which can be readily fed 

 into a roller machine, and the sheets of foundation accurately 

 cut and all perfect and automatic, of course, the dipping of 

 wax sheets will soon be entirely a thing of the past. 



For cutting foundation nothing is so admirable as the 



