American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. V. 



JA.3VXJA.RY, 



[f^TO. 



No. 7. 



[For the American Bee Journal.; 

 A Leaf from History. 



In Maj-, 1869, my father, tlien in the enjoyment 

 of a temporary relea.se from ill liealth, com- 

 menced the preparation of the foUowino; article. 

 The pressure of affairs in tlie apiary delayed its 

 completion, and returning illness left it in its 

 present condition. Being led to believe that the 

 facts therein contained should be given to the 

 public at the earliest possible moment, I have 

 taken his notes and copied them in precisely their 

 present order. I Avill add that the almo.sl con- 

 tinual bodily prostration of my father by dis- 



ease, has prevented any application on his part ''ZZrZ '"^ fP/^f^ioP' ^-^y.P^ 

 to the Patent Office for the independent patent I P^?„'r"red a Patent for his device 

 referred to in the extract from our circular, and 

 to vs'hich we believe him justly entitled. I much 

 regret that the article cannot receive the finish- 

 ing touches he designed for it ; but, as it is, it is 

 an interesting and valuable piece of reading to 

 all using the triangular or bevel-edge guide in 

 his movable frames. 



J. T. Langstroth. 



November 8, 18G9. 



Office declared an interference between my 

 claim and those subsequently made by Mi-. Geo. 

 H. Clark, of East Washington, New Hampshire. 

 Testimony was taken by both parties, and be- 

 fore the matter was decided by the Commission- 

 er, a new application for a Patent on the same 



dcAlce was made by May, of Elinois ; who 



claimed a secret use of the same two or more 

 years before Clark, and the Commissioner de- 

 clared an interference between the three parties 

 and required testimony to be taken. Before, 

 howe\-er, the time of hearing came, he decided 

 that substantially the same de\ice Mas shown in 

 a note to the English edition of Huber, and that 

 neither of the parties was entitled to a Patent. 

 Subsequently Mi-. Clark, after repeated rejec- 

 ^:,.„, Qf j.^jg application, by persistent eiforts, 



The testimony taken in Mr. Clark's case 

 shows that he \\as led to the use of the sharp 

 edge by seeing bees build a small piece of comb 

 on the edge of a square stick accidentally put 

 into a hive in such a position as to present a 

 sharp edge. From the testimony of his brother 

 and sister, his only witnes.ses, it appears he kept 

 the matter a profound secret ; and they testify to 

 his making only two hives with sharp' edges on 

 the bars — and to only one in which bees were 

 put. Now, as bees sometimes pay no attention 

 to the guides, but build their combs at ilght- 

 HiSTORY OF Triajjgular OR SHARP EDGE i angles to them, the fact of their once building 



Comb Guides. 



It may be inteivstiiig to many readers of the 

 Bee JoiTRNAL, to know the leading facts in tlui 

 invention of the triangular or sharp edge .so gen- 

 erally used for securing straight combs. 



In my movable comb frames, (Patent applied 

 for in December, 1851, and granted October 5, rule then existing, which did'not aTlow him 

 18o2), I used small pieces of worker comb for | testify in his case, 

 guides. After many unsuccessful attempts to 

 secure straight combs Avithout such guides, I de- 

 vised in February. 1852. the triangular edge, 

 (see note A). These guides were extensively 

 used and sold by me in hives made in Greenfield, 

 Massachusetts, in the spring of that vear. Find- 

 ing them to an.swei-, substantially, the ends in- 

 tended. I applied for a Patent for the device be- 

 fore it liad bcf n in public use two vean . The 



them on the line of the guide, though a very 

 strong presumptive evidence that they Mill 

 usually do so, seems hardly to be that absolute 

 proof which is nece,«sary to constitute an "in- 

 vention." It may be, however, that Mr. Clark 

 used the.se guides in more than one hive, and 

 that h(; Avas prevented from proAing this by the 

 " "" "' , Avliich did not allow him to 

 case. 

 Since the matter was before the Patent Office, 

 I have discovered that the celebrated English 

 surgeon, Hunter, in an article published in the 

 , vei-y clearly shoAvs that he a\ as well ac- 



quainted Avith the sliarp edge device for making 

 the combs run in any desired direction- It could 

 therefore only be patented on some new and 

 u.seful combination. 

 In my original application in 1854, supposing 



