170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Feb., 



testimony is simply ridiculous, though it might do 

 before a purchasable patent office examiner. 



We wrote to Europe for these works, but all in vain. 

 When we reached London, we found that Mr. L. had 

 purchased copies of Mr. Munn's work, but we could 

 find none, though our friends assured us that they 

 would find a copy somewhere by the time we returned 

 from the continent. When we visited Paris we found 

 but one person of whom we had heard that we might 

 possibly obtain a copy of M. Debeauvoy's M'ork. 

 We were glad to find the books in his possession, for 

 the author had been dead some years. But our polite 

 Frenchman, M. Hamet, declined to part with the 

 books. We could not persuade him even to loan us 

 the 1851 edition, though we offered abundant secu- 

 rity for its safe return. Mr. Hamet however expres- 

 sed an earnest desire that we shoukl secure the 

 works, and gave us the address of a publisher where 

 we might possibly obtain them. We were successful 

 and secured a double set of these valuable books. 



When we returned to London, Major Munn nor a 

 half dozen other friends had succeeded in finding a 

 single copy of his work of 1851. We authorized the 

 oflfer of a reward, first of one pound, to be increased 

 to five pounds, rather than fail. Two weeks after 

 we reached New York, and only a few days after our 

 satchel had been stolen with one set of our French 

 books and other valuable European documents. Major 

 Munn's 1851 pamphlet came safely by rnail. 



The name of Augustus Baron von Berlepsch, for- 

 merly of Seebach, Germany, now of Munich, Bavaria, 

 should be next mentioned among European inventors. 

 We have the hive which he presented March 16th, 

 1853, to the Editor of the Bienenzeihmg (the German 

 bee journal, published at Eichstadt), a description of 

 which was published in the May number for 1852. 

 The hive is stamped with the seal of Dr. Buchner, 

 Royal Notary Public of Munich. The document 

 containing his oath was lost in the stolen satchel, but 

 we have just received a duplicate similarly stamped, 

 from which we have taken the following facts (we 

 sent a copy of the document to Mr. Wagner, and also 

 to Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Wagner returned the copy, 

 refusing to publish it) : The Baron of Berlepsch 

 says, that in the winter of 1843-43, he first heard of 

 Dzierzon's hive with movable bars, and obtained a 

 sample which he perceived to be an invention of the 

 first rank, but still in its infancy, and that the bars 

 should be replaced with frames. He made frames for a 

 hive in which he put a swarm early in June, 1843, but 

 was troubled to keep the frames the proper distance 

 . from each other. He remedied this partially in 1844, 

 W and in 1845 he left sjpace hehoeen the frames and the walls 

 of the hives to prevent the bees from gluing the side 

 bars to the walls. In 1846, he and his partner, Jacob 

 Shultze, obtained fifty glass jars or bell glasses, and 

 tbirty of them were filled in Jfay, 1846. We saw 

 samples of these frames, and they were exactly like 

 the narrow frames with tops, so improperly called 

 "Laugstroth" frames, in this country. They were 

 used with all the features — air spaces, shallow cham- 

 ber, perforated top, and surplus or bell glasses above 

 — from 1846 to 1850, when they were improved by 

 side projections, and described in the German Bee 

 Journal, as before stated, in May, 1853. The Baron 

 von Berlepsch says, " Mr. Langstrotli's claims are 

 ridiculous." He heard of them in 1856, through an 

 intelligent American beekeeper, Mr. Phineas Mac- 

 Mahon, from Philadelphia, who was not a little sur- 

 prised to see eighty movable comb bee hives full of 

 bees, and was told by the Baron that the frames in 

 them had not been changed since 1851. '" Now I 

 know," said he, "that Mr. Langstroth is not the 

 inventor, but I wonder how he heard of the frames." 

 The Baron replied that he supposed Mr. L. got it of 



Paul Reinhard Backhaus, to whom he sent hives in 1851. 

 Lina Baroness of Berlepsch writes that she has 

 received a letter from a son of Mr. Backhaus, stating 

 that his father returned to Germany in 1857, and that 

 he had much to say about Mr. Langstroth. He re- 

 turned to Qubuque, Iowa, in 1860, and soon after died. 

 We are on the track of these hives, and will produce 

 them, if they can yet be found. We will now only 

 briefly notice the use of 



MOVABLE FRAME HIVES IN AMERICA. 



There are many others who used movable frame 

 hives in America prior to Mr. Langstroth, though 

 many believe that Mr. L. first heard of the German 

 frames through letters to Mr. Wagner, prior to 1853. 



The first printed description of a movable frame 

 hive published in America, was given in The Scientific 

 American, March 6th, 1847, page 187. The inventor, 

 Jacob Shaw, Jr., then residing in Hinckly, Medina 

 county, Ohio, now lives in Shelby, Ohio, and has the 

 same old hive, in his possession. We have seen the hive, 

 and it meets all of Mr. L.'s claims. This is but one 

 among many others used by beekeepers in America 

 prior to 1853. 



We can only mention the names of others now. 

 A. F,. Moon, Edward Towuly, Dr. Metcalf, Andrew 

 Harbison, and W. A. Flanders, ijiaking Mr. L. only 

 the seventh son, and it seems that he too, like all other 

 seventh sons, has been called Doctor. We really pity 

 Mr. L., and would gladly have permitted him to 

 enjoy the honors claimed as his own, but the great 

 mass of beekeepers are losing all sympathy for him 

 since he united with his former foe, Mr. Otis, and 

 thus made it our duty to search out the facts and 

 make them public, Though it has cost us three or 

 four thousand dollars, we shall not be the loser in 

 the end, as we shall be able to bring out some im- 

 provements in bee-culture that will reward us, as well 

 as advance the cause of bee-culture in America. 



We lately returned from St. Paul, and have just 

 learned that Mr. Otis has permitted Mr. Hosnier's 

 case to be dismissed, and says he shall give it all up, 

 if Mr. King has got the evidence spoken of some 

 months since in the Journal. We have now 

 informed Mr. Otis of the facts in our possession, and 

 hope he will be content to retire to private life, and 

 cease to perambulate through the country, vairily 

 trying to collect blackmail from the honest apiarians 

 of America. 



H. A. K. 



H. A. King on Movable Prame Hives. 



Expecting that the U. S. Court will soon pass 

 judgment upon many of the matters referred to by 

 Mr." King, I should not at this time have noticed his 

 article, but for the damage it might inflict upon 

 owners of territorial rights in my patent ; so many 

 persons takinii for granted that whjit is not answered, 

 must be unanswerable. 



I object decidedly to the heading which Mr. King 

 has given to his article : " Movable Frames. Is Mr. 

 Langstroth the inventor?" because it conveys the im- 

 pression that I claim absolutely the invention of mova- 

 ble frames, when I have repeatedly, in Mr. Wagner's 

 Journal and elsewhere, stated that movable frames 

 were used in Europe before my invention. 



It is true, that when I applied for a patent, I 

 knew nothing of any movable frames except those of 

 Iluber ; but even after becoming acquainted with the 

 frames of Munn and Debeauvoys, I was satisfied 

 that mine, as described in the original patent, need 

 not be confounded with theirs. Fmding, however, 

 that these foreign inventions were continually alleged 

 to be substantially the same as mine, I applied for a 

 reissue of my patent, and submitted to the office 



