513 



said characteristics may be best securer!, I have 

 prepared plans, detail drawings and specifications, 

 which will intelligibly illustrate and explain my 

 method of constructing, tempering and ventilating 

 such a structure, in a manner to superlatively adapt 

 it to all its purposes,— a consumation so long and so 

 diligently sought in all honey-producing countries, 

 yet never before attained. I will enumerate what I 

 assume to be the essential requisites of the struc- 

 ture for which we are to furnish plans, etc, that it 

 may be seen that all are embraced. 



By cataloguing the characteristics to be supplied, 

 we will arrange them in the order of their relative 

 importance. 



The essential characteristics of a bee-wintering 

 house are : 



1. Perfect ventilation. 



2. Perfect quietude. 



3. A proper temperature. 



4. A uniform temperature. 



5. A proper hygrometric condition, 

 tj. Absolute darkness. 



7. Simplicity and economy of construction. 



8. Durability. 



!), Economy of labor and materials in all manipu- 

 lation pertaining to managing the stock and to 

 operating the house. 



The first essential is secured by the conjunctive 

 use of sub-earth ventilation and ice. By sub-earth 

 ventilation we can supply any required volume of 

 air, superlatively purified, sufficiently dried, per- 

 petually changed and uniformly tempered to about 

 50° Farenheit. 



But we assume that a temperature of 50" is not as 

 desirable and economical as 40° or 45° will be found, 

 hence we have supplied the ice adjunct, so arranged 

 that air transmitted by a subterranean air duct, 

 may, (the whole volume supplied, or any required 

 portion of it), be automatically passed through the 

 entire contents of an ice house ere it is admitted to 

 the bee room. 



By this arrangement it will be obvious to all that 

 the consumption ot ice and the labor and care 

 requisite in the arrangement of the tempering and 

 ventilation will be reduced to the minimum. 



The ice is handled but once i.e. in storing, in which 

 manipulation there is no waste and when the valves 

 in the ducts are adjusted, i a work of but few min- 

 utes) the temperature for which, they are set, any- 

 where from 88" to 50°, will be maintained within a 

 degree or two, perpetually, and entirely automatic- 

 ally, except the nominal cost for fuel and labor to 

 maintain a small sluggish fire in a stove, in the base 

 of the heated exhaust shaft. For heating the ex- 

 haust shaft, wood or coal may be used, though the 

 latter is preferable. 



The second essential, i.e. quietude, is secured by 

 isolating the bee-room and by the insulation used in 

 the walls and roof, consisting of five close air 

 chambers, produced by diaphrams of concrete felt 

 in the walls and roof, by which sound is thoroughly 

 intercepted, as well as heat. 



The third, fourth and fifth essentials are all 

 secured in conjunction with the unique ventilation 

 and tempering described, i.e. the proper and uni- 

 form temperature, and a thorough drying of the air 

 admitted to the building, are all fully secured by 

 means of the conjunctive use of ice and sub-earth 

 ventilation; an achievement which challenges the 

 admiration of all philosophic minds. 



The sixth characteristic, or absolute darkness, is 

 positively secured, for there is not a window in the 

 house, and but one door opening, and that is fur- 

 nished by inner and outer doors, closely packed, and 

 there are to be two thicknesses of boards in each 

 door, with a sheet of carpet felt between the boards, 

 by which heat and sound is intercepted. 



That the seventh essential are fully secured, i.e. 

 simplicity and economy of construction, suffice it to 

 say, that there is not to be a mortise or a tenon in 

 the frame— not a window frame, but one door frame, 

 no stairs, not a brick or a stone in the structure, ex- 

 cept in the chimney, and not a dollar expended in 

 decoration. 



With regard to the eighth characteristic, desira- 

 bility of the structure, it will be seen by careful in- 

 spection of the plans and specifications, that al- 

 though the foundations are of wood, they are 

 thoroughly protected against theagentsof decay, by 

 a simple and effective mode of flushing out the air 

 chambers in the walls at will, with pure dry air, at 

 50 degrees, thus keeping the materials so dry and 

 cool that decay is impossible. 



Additional protection is added by sheathing the 

 exterior of the foundations with corrugated galva- 

 nized iron, so placed that no water can possibly come 

 to the wood, and the corrugations in the iron form a 

 contiguous succession of perpendicular, ventilating 

 tubes on the exterior face of the foundation, all of 

 which connect with a drain, filled with screened 

 gravel under the foundation, and said drain connects 



with a wall of screened gravel on each side of them, 

 which gravel walls extend from bottom to top of the 

 foundations, and that under the building connects 

 with an air chamber which extends under the entire 

 building, and said chambers connects with the 

 heated exhaust shaft, thus conjunctively constitut- 

 ing the most efficient ventilation and tempering pro- 

 tection of the entire walls of the structure from 

 decay that can be desired. 



The ventilation of a bee house, as illustrated in 

 design number 12, is simply perfect, and by means of 

 the plurality of close chambers of confined air in 

 the walls, the temperature of the building is under 

 entire control. 



Universal failure in controlling the temperature 

 of bee-houses has attended all attempts by bee- 

 keepers that I have seen, and it is mainly attribut- 

 able to a want of a proper understanding of the 

 subject of insulation, without which, failure is 

 inevitable, even with an air supply as perfect as that 

 furnished by sub-earth air ducts, of which the world 

 acknowledges the writer the original inventor and 

 patentee in the United States. 



Sub-earth ventilation has been patented in Prus- 

 sia and is being introduced there, but not with the 

 degree of success that I have attained in this 

 country. 



1 have obtained a copy of the Prussian patent 

 letters and had them translated, and from the draw- 

 ings and specifications it is very evident that the 

 patentees lack a knowledge of the principles on 

 which success entirely depends, and the attainment 

 of which, simple as it appears, occasioned me many 

 years of dilligent study, and numerous expensive 

 experiments ; but I feel that I am well rewarded for 

 all the expenditure of time and money, for sub- 

 earth ventilation has no rival, and is acknowledged 

 by the ablest ventilating engineers in the world, to 

 be a peerless system of ventilation, and its value in 

 the arts, as well as for ventilating human habita- 

 tions, is literally inestimable. I emphatically assert 

 that it is impossible to make a success of wintering 

 bees in close, unventilated cellars, or to hold the 

 temperature of such a cellar, stocked with bees for 

 a period of 4 to 5 months even as low as 50 degrees. 



I also assert that if it is attempted to ventilate 

 and to temper properly a cellar, by admitting the 

 external air to it direct, at whatever its natural tem- 

 perature may be. no amount of care and attention, 

 even with the use of ice, can secure anything like a 

 uniform temperature of 45 to 50 degrees, nor is it 

 practicable to prevent the injurious accumulation of 

 carbonic acid gas in a cellar, unless it is drained out 

 by gravitation from the bottom of the cellar, or is 

 exhausted by the method adopted in my system. 



All who carefully study the plans and specifications 

 for design 12, will see that the ninth characteristic 

 viz : economy of labor and materials in all manipu- 

 lation pertaining to the management of the stock, 

 and to operating the house, is very marked, and that 

 nothing is wanting ; but, while the detail of the con- 

 struction and the directions for the management of 

 the house are very simple, failure may result from 

 the non-observance of what may appear to the 

 novice entirely unimportant, hence a faithful obser- 

 vance of all is urged, that full success may be ob- 

 tained. 



I know of no other method of constructing a 

 bee-wintering house that will possess all the essen- 

 tial requisites of such a structure, fully and entirely, 

 than that which I have described and illustrated in 

 the plans and specifications of design number 12. 

 which I respetfully submit tor the inspection of all 

 interested, and on which I invite the careful study 

 and the most severe criticism, and I hope to see the 

 opinions of the members who examine said plans, 

 whether favorable or adverse, embraced in the 

 report of this meeting, that those who were so un- 

 fortunate as to be unable to attend, may have the 

 benefit of all your interesting deliberations, discus- 

 sions and exhibits, which I frankly admit has been 

 the sweetest and most interesting mental feast in 

 which I ever participated, and I am forced to tin- 

 conclusion that the votaries of no other art, on 

 either continent, will realize the degree of profit 

 from sub-earth ventilation, that apiarists will. 



It supplies numerous essentials in a bee-wintering 

 house and fills desiderate conditions, to attain which 

 have ever baffled the combined intelligence and 

 efforts of the most intelligent apiarists of the world. 



Baltimore, Md. J. WILKINSON. 



Prof. Cook stilted sub-earth ventila- 

 tion had been practiced with success 

 for several years at Lansing, Midi. 



Mr. Rice, Illinois, suggested Mr. "Wil- 

 kinson was not a practical bee-keeper, 

 and he (Mr. Rice) would like to know 



