38 



AMERICAN BEE PURNAL 



Jan. 16, ]902 



iy6C». he would have tniuid therein several references and 

 illustration's in the 2(1 edition, published in 1^57, of the tri- 

 angular or V-shaped wooden guide he now claims as his inven- 

 tion in 1860 or thereafter. 



As before stated, the writer first met the Langstroth hive 

 in 18.d7, and this was at the apiary of the late Moses Quinby. 

 Mr. Quinby had about iiU of these hives in use in his apiary 

 at that time. He took pains to show and explain this hive in 

 detail to me. I don't now distinctly recollect about seeing the 

 triangular guide in the hive at the time, but 1 believe it was 

 in use that year in all his hivi'S. Later on, and during that 

 year. I found tlie Langstroth hives on exhibition in Buffalo, 

 and at the Xew York State Fair. The man who was exhibit- 

 ing this hive was R. C. Otis, whose home was then near Ken- 

 osiia. Wis. Mr. Otis had a colony of bees in the Langstrotii 

 hives and was handling and exhibiting the same to the visitors 

 at the fair. He had also empty Langstroth hives on exhibi- 

 tion there, and ray recollection is that they were all supplied 

 with the V-shaped top-bars. 



The following spring Mr. Otis made ray father and me a 

 visit at our apiary in Niagara Co., N. Y., five miles north of 

 Middleport. My father bought the county right to manufac- 

 ture and sell the Langstroth hive in Niagara county in the 

 spring of 185S, and he had 200 new hives made that year in 

 Lockport for our own use. and to sell to others, and I know 

 that all the hives made that year were supplied with the V 

 guide in the top part of the brood-frames. 



So much for history. Kane Co., III. 



[Almost the next mail after getting the foregoing from Mr. 

 Baldridge, we received the following from Mr. C. P. Dadant 

 on the same subject: — Editor.] 



ORIGINATOR OF THE V TOP-BAR. 



Permit me to rise for a correction to an article published 

 on page 5. by John R. Schmidt, as to the originator of the V 

 top-bar. This gentleman says that Mr. .James La ISarre was 

 the first man to conceive the idea of a V top-bar as comb- 

 . guide, and stat<'s that this discovery was made in the "60"s. It 

 is a matter of small consequence, practically, as to the first 

 originator of the idea, but historically I believe we should 

 know the truth of any claim. I believe the idea may have been 

 original with the gentleman named at the date stated, but he 

 was not the originator of the first V top-bar, for this was used 

 by L. L. Langstroth in the '.jU's, and not only is this men- 

 tioned in his book, edition of 1857, but a picture of the 

 frames with triangular bars at the sides as well as at the top 

 is included among the plates, and a special description is made 

 of the triangular piece. 



On page 196 of the same work are found the following 

 words: 



"The great point to be gained is to secure a single comb * 

 on each frame. This I have effected after many experiments, 

 and the device may be applieii to any hive so that expense of 

 a few cents will always secure straight combs." 



This invention of the triangular bar seems to have been 

 one of the points or features of the Langstroth patent, which 

 cost its owner so much trouble and brouglit him so little re- 

 ward, though the invention was revolutionizing the culture 

 of bees. 



Not only was the triangular top-bar a feature of the Lang- 

 stroth hive 20 years before the time, when, as reported by 

 Mr. Schmidt, this idea is said to have been suggested to Chas. 

 F. Muth by Mr. La Barre, but at that same date — i.e., in the 

 edition of 18.)7 — a description is given and a cut. Plate III, 

 Fig. lO, of a guage for cutting these triangular top-bars on a 

 power circular saw-table. So, granting that Mr. LaHarre may 

 have suggested the idea to Mr. Muth, who suggested it in 

 tur'n to Mr. Langstroth, (which is much to lie doubted), there 

 is an_error of more than 20 years in the dates. I trace this 

 to 1857, but if I had the first edition of the book in my hands, 

 I firmly believe I could traci^ it at least five years further 

 back. 



The triangular top-bar is not an absolutely safe guide, but 

 it answers in most cases. A very important point is to have 

 the frames at proper distances from center to center. Al- 

 though the bees themselves make slight variations, their 

 combs are never closer together than 1?8 inches. If the 

 frames are placed too close to each other the bees may build the 

 first comb right, but the next will be thrown out of the center 

 of the bar. and, the regularity being broken, they may jump 

 from one frame to another and curve their combs into iill sorts 

 of shapes, after they have once departed from the straight 

 course. 



Brood-combs are built with great regularity, as a certain 

 space is needed in which to hatch the brood— a greater distance 

 than that absolutely indispensable being apt to make their 



combs too dillicult to keep warm. On the honey-combs, how- 

 ever, they show much less regard for correct measurements, 

 and. especially at the end of a season, they will readily 

 lengthen out the cells of the outside combs to a very dispro- 

 portionate size. 



Thus, if we use only the triangular comb-guide to secure 

 straight combs in the frames, we must be very careful to keep 

 proper distances. We have always been inclined to give the 

 bees ample room, and, for this reason, we follow Quinby in his 

 method of putting the frames 1)4 inches apart from center to 

 center. 



While ransacking our bee-books for information on the 

 subject, I see that Kevan, in his book on the honey-bee, dated 

 1838, recommended putting the "bars'' closer' together in 

 the center of the hive than at the outside. He had evidently 

 noticed what I mention here, that the brood-combs needed to 

 be closer together than the honey-combs, and for that reason 

 found it advisable to place the latter at a greater distance 

 from each other. He made his bars 1 Je inches in width, and 

 placed the center ones seven-sixteenths of an inch apart, 

 while the outside ones were placed nine-sixteenths from each 

 other. This made the distance one and nine-sixteenths from 

 center to center on the brood-combs, and one and eleven-six- 

 teenths on the storing-combs. This distance seems too great, 

 and it is doubtful that there could be much regularity in 

 combs built on those bars ; but, at that time, the movable idea 

 had not yet taken hold of the bee-keeping world, and the men 

 of that day had not the remotest idea of the great steps that 

 would be made in the next GO years. 



Debeauvoys. who had evidently forseen the results that 

 might be achieved with a hive that could be taken to pieces 

 without injuring the combs, liad made a failure of his discov- 

 ery because he had left out the anti-propolizing idea^the 

 prize feature of the Langstroth invention. 



Before the invention of the wax sheet stamped with the im- 

 print of the cells, which later gave rise to the modern comb 

 foundation, Mehring had devised a stamp to be used on the 

 underside of a flat top-bar which made an impression of the 

 outline of the comb. This impression, aftwards filled with 

 beeswax, was said to succeed well, but was soon superseded 

 by what was known as a covib-guide, made of a thin strip of 

 melted beeswax on the underside of the frame. The latest 

 method is a narrow strip of foundation wedged into a groove 

 on the under side of the top-bar. This is the surest of all 

 guides, barring a full sheet of comb or of foundation. But 

 the triangular top-bar, which makes the subject of this arti- 

 cle, is still used in many hives, and will probably be used as 

 long as apiarists want a cheap comb-guide. 



Hancock Co., 111. C. P. Dadant. 



A Case of Bee-Fever— He "Had It Bad." 



I have been a subscriber to the American Bee Journal 

 for the past two years, and very little could I do without it. I 

 find it a great help to me at every turn. I commenced to keep 

 bees about five years ago, and have had all kinds of luck since 

 then with them — good, bad, and indifferent. They were at all 

 times a source of amusement to me. if not one of profit, having 

 honey to sell but once in all that time ( 1.901 ). But a sweet 

 time it has been at the table all that time. Honey, honey, 

 honey, three times a day, and sometimes of tener. Oh, no, not 

 from surplus, dead colonies being the most frequent source of 

 supply, until the last season. 



My first start was made by trading poor debts for poor 

 bees. In this way I got three colonies, which were neither a 

 pleasure to the sight nor a profit to me, but they nevertheless 

 gave me a "swell" time, while they lived, and a sweet one 

 after they died. No Irishman ever had a longer or finer wake. 

 We feasted them, at their expense, all winter and well into 

 the spring. 



The next year I had better htck, trading bad debts for 

 better bees, getting three colonies this time, which built u]> 

 strong for winter, but no surplus yet. One of these died dur- 

 ing the winter, leaving a hive full of honey. I also captured 

 an Italian swarm, in the timber, late in July, which, although 

 a poor year, filled a ten-frame hive — for themselves — before 

 frost. This strain of bees I still have, and they have never 

 failed to yield me excess honey, except the first year. 



Up to this time I had only a mild case of "bee-fever." but 

 the next spring, with the return of warm days, the symptoms 

 b(?came mor<' pronounced, and I developed the itch (to be a 

 shining light in beedom, by some discovery or invention — a 

 dangerous symptom, financally), which, I understand, is very 

 apt to develop early in the disease. I had already subscribed 

 for the "Old Reliable," and got "ABC of Bee-Culture." That was 



