Aug. 2, 1906 



661 



American Ttee Journal 



end of the operation, as the more the mass is compressed the 

 more solid and less impervious it becomes, especially on the 

 surface of the mass, and hence the greater the force necessary 

 to expel the remaining wax; and finally capillary attraction 

 will hold a portion of the wax and moisture which it will 

 be impossible to expel with any great amount of force or pres- 

 sure. 



So it is obvious, that, with methods heretofore in use, 

 a certain amount of wax is locked up, as it were, in a safe, 

 requiring a certain combination to open and release it. The 

 writer claims the discovery of this combination, the principles 

 of which may be surmised as follows, namely : 



A construction in which the masses of slumgum within 

 the device should be in comparatively thin layers, so that the 

 wax has the shortest distance possible to move to become free 

 therefrom. 



A device in which the mass of slumgum can be pressed 

 while immersed in boiling water so that when the wax is 

 freed it will float to the surface. 



A wax-extractor in which the pressure may be intermit- 

 tent, and so arranged that when the pressure is released the 

 slumgum or material may take up water like a sponge, which 

 can then be readily expressed to carry out more wax and 

 this operation repeated until all the wax has been expelled. 



A wax-extractor in which the condition shall be the best 

 possible for the slumgum or material operated upon to take 

 up water for the displacement of the wax. 



A structure which readily and automatically separates the 

 various layers of material operated upon and relieves the 

 pressure therein when the press is released, so that the slum- 

 gum may absorb the water like a sponge in large amounts. 



In practice the cheeses of slumgum rest on surfaces of 

 wire-screen, the bottommost one of which rests on springs 

 capable of exerting several hundred pounds of pressure, so that 

 when pressure is applied the springs will continue to squeeze 

 the masses of slumgum as the wax and water are expelled. 



There should be several masses or cheeses of slumgum, 

 each separated from the other by a slatted frame covered 

 with wire-screen with a spring at each end to separate auto- 

 matically the several masses or cheeses when the pressure is 

 released. Above the uppermost cheese is a follower against 

 which a screw works. The cheeses and slatted frames are 

 contained within an iron frame-work which in turn is con- 

 tained within a boiler of sufficient depth to immerse the 

 cheeses in water. The water is boiled until all the wax in 

 the slumgum is melted. Pressure is then applied, gently at 

 first, to allow the wax and water to run out gradually. The 

 wax floats to the surface where it will not be reabsorbed 

 by the slumgum. The pressure is now released and the 

 cheeses separate, allowing a free access of boiling water. 

 Pressure is again applied and as the hot water is pressed 

 out it brings more wax with it, which floats to the surface. 

 The process of intermittent pressure is continued until the 

 work is complete. By this method practically all the wax 

 may be easily obtained ; and in order that I may not be mis- 

 understood I will construe "practically" to mean that not 

 more than i percent of the weight of the slumgum, when 

 the extracting is finished, will be wax. That is, in every ioo 

 pounds of slumgum there will remain less than I pound of 

 wax which this process will leave if directions are carefully 

 followed. One test of slumgum, after treatment by my 

 method, failed to reveal more than % of I percent of wax, 

 and the cheese from which the test was made weighed be- 

 tween 25 and 30 pounds and was 2 inches or more in thick- 

 ness. It is not recommended that the cheeses be so thick 

 when the pressing is finished, as the thinner the cheeses are 

 the cleaner the work. 



It will be observed that there is no opening of the ex- 

 tractor after it is filled, until the work is complete; no raking 

 or pawing over of the slumgum to expose new surfaces and no 

 excessive squeezing. The wax simply comes out with the 

 water and floats to the surface under moderate pressure where 

 it may be run off through a spout or be skimmed off with a 

 dipper. 



Great strides in advance have been made in apiculture 

 continuously ever since the awakening which dates from Lang 

 stroth. Wax-production did not receive the attention its im- 

 portance merited until Hatch. Gemmill, Ferris and the A. I. 

 Root Co., took hold of the proposition in earnest less than a 

 dozen years ago. Much has been accomplished in the intro- 

 duction of better methods, but the bee-keeping fraternity will 



not be content until it is able easily to obtain all the wax 

 that can possibly be produced. 



Have you 100 colonies of bees, and are working and muss- 

 ing along in a primitive fashion, trying to save the expense 

 of a modern wax-extractor? If you are so doing, you are 

 wasting, at a low estimate, the price of a good extractor every 

 two years, which means that an investment in a modern 

 wax-machine is worth annually at least 50 percent, besides the 

 convenience in using it. If you have 200 colonies of bees you 

 save the price of the extractor every year. 



There is no doubt that over 25 percent of the wax here- 

 tofore present in old combs and cappings has been thrown 

 away. In the aggregate, apiculture in America has thrown 

 away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wax during 

 the past 25 years. It is time we cease to waste our precious 

 substance. Let's save our wax ; it is needed in the sciences 

 and industries, and a good market is always in readiness to 

 take it. O. L. Hershiser. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Hershiser spoke of having a dish in an 

 oven. I would like to know whether he speaks from experi- 

 ence, from observation, or from hearsay with regard to that? 



Mr. Hershiser — Heresay. I heard Mr. Abbott speak of it. 



Dr. Miller — That would be so exceedingly objectionable. 

 In the first place there would be the danger whenever the 

 wax was melted down in the bottom, of it being over-heated. 

 In the next place there is a very close relative of that, so that 

 I think likely he has got them mixed in some way. That 

 relative is putting a dripping pan into the oven, with one 

 corner cut open and projecting out of the oven, raised a lit- 

 tle at the back end, and the wax dripping out into the dish 

 outside. That will hold 4 times as much as the machine 

 mentioned, and be perfectly safe; and while I would not 

 think of speaking of it as an important thing for rendering 

 wax on a large scale, for very many who have only a little 

 to do it is a method not at all to be despised. 



Mr. Hershiser — If Dr. Miller would refer to the proceed- 

 ings of the Chicago-North-western convention, two years ago 

 this winter, when Mr. Huber Root had a paper on "Wax-Ex- 

 tracting," he will find that what I mentioned in reference to 

 the oven process was described by Mr. Abbott. 



I want to say another word; that the idea of using springs 

 in the bottom of the extractor in order to continue the squeez- 

 ing after you have turned the screw down, I got from what 

 Dr. Miller demanded should be a part of a wax-machine, at 

 that same meeting. 



Mr. Arnd — This press Mr. Hershiser is talking of, is at 

 our place of business. I think it could be demonstrated. 



Mr. Hershiser — I have it up there. It is the first ma- 

 chine I ever made, and it is not a beauty, but it is effective. 

 If any of you would like to see it you can go up there and 

 look at it. 



Mr. Sherburne, of Iowa — I extract my beeswax practically 

 without a press. It happened to me in this way : I had a 

 square pan for melting honey; it was made of 10-inch plank. 

 When I had a lot of wax to extract I used it. I put in a lot 

 of water, several inches deep, and start it going. When the 

 water commences to boil I dump in the waste and cappings, 

 and as they melt I take a piece of wire window-screen and 

 put it on top of where the wax is accumulating and com- 

 mence dipping. I melted all day and dipped as the wax came 

 to the top. Perhaps nearly all of us have seen a sorghum 

 pan boiling. The bubbles start from the bottom and come 

 up through. You can call it a disintegrating process. Those 

 bubbles will come up so fast, if the fire is adjusted properly, 

 it will boil, with those bubbles over the whole boiling sur- 

 face. As fast as the wax is melted, dip it off over in this 

 other corner where it is not boiling. I have enough so that 

 I can boil all day and dip all the time. By this disinte- 

 grating process, the boiling will take the slumgum all out. If 

 you think it will not, try it. please. Now, at the last, I have 

 a square frame to fit nicely, covered with common screen, 

 and I drop it on that and load it down so that it will sink 

 the whole of the slumgum below the surface. If you will 

 let it bubble a while and let the fire die out, in the morning 

 you can take off the remaining wax. The last 2 or 3 days 

 I did that, there was practically no wax in the slumgum: 

 and let me tell you, it would hurt me a good deal if I thought 

 there was some there. I believe I shipped down 300 pounds 

 of wax the last shipment. 



Mr. Hershiser — Where do you reside? 



Mr. Sherburne — Iowa; a very fine country. 



Mr. Hershiser — From the tact that you produce 300 



