1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



151 



THE FIRST COMB FOUNDATION 



Bee Comb Foundation is a comparatively recent product. 

 Previous to 1850 very few beekeepers realized the value of 

 elimination of drone-comb. Some few did. These got 

 straight worker combs by cutting up the crooked combs 

 and including only worker comb in the frames. The elder 

 member of the present Dadant firm well remembers this 

 procedure practiced together with his father, Charles Dadant. 



Not only did they remodel the combs of their own colo- 

 nies, but bought dead colonies everywhere possible to in. 



crease the amount of worker comb 

 available. And yet they were always 

 short of worker comb. 



It was in Europe that the first attempt 

 at foundation was made. Johannes 

 Mehring in 1857 produced crude plates 

 of wax with the hexagonal impression. 

 But these were far from perfect. In fact, 

 much drone-comb was built from them. 

 JOHANNES MEHRING g^^f ^|. ^^g ^ beginning. 



The waffle iron presses of Rietsche & Given followed. The 

 sheets became of better impression, but were still hard to 

 ship owing to their brittleness. 



The roller mills of American make were later to remedy 

 this defect, gradually improving with continued experiment. 



niknAMT'Q FmiMnATiriNQ (Every Inch, every pound, every ton. equal to\ 

 l/Ml/MI^ ■ a r VWr^I*** 1 IV»r^ J i^ any sample we have ever sent out ) 



SPECIFY IT TO YOUR DEALER. IF HE HASN'T IT WRITE US 



DADANT & SONS, Hamilton, Illinois 



CATALOG AND PRICES ON BEE SUPPLIES, BEESWAX, WAX WORKING INTO COMB 

 FOUNDATION AND COMB RENDERING FOR THE ASKING 



