1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



207 



<leacon of the Coiigi-ogatioiial chiireh of his 

 town. He has long served as superintendent of 

 the Sabbath-sctiool: and in all matters per- 

 taining to the spiritual and temporal welfare of 

 the society his influence is felt, and is always 

 on the side of right. .Ioun H. Lai!RABEp:. 



Ag"l College. Mich., Jan., 1891. 



[You have given us an e.xcellent sketch of our 

 ■■ mutual friend," and your next to the last par- 

 agraph describes his i)ersonaIily almost e.xactly. 

 Along on my bicycle tour I was frequently asked, 

 "Who is that Rambler? I like his style,anyhow. 

 But I want to know when that chap is coming 

 around to visit me. so I can kind o' slick up. you 

 know." I was asked so many times about Ram- 

 bler's identity, that.when I reached Lake George, 

 I told Mr. Martin that it might not be a bad idea 

 for him to let his real name be known, now 

 that we had abundant evidence that his Ram- 

 bles were appreciated and sought after by 

 thousands of readers. Dr. Mason once said to 

 me, " Ernest, I don't like this nom-de-plume 

 business. Now, there is Rambler — a rather nice 

 fellow, I judge, but I should like to know who 

 he is; and when he gives me a ' blackboard ex- 

 ercise ' I can give him another in return." 

 Again, at the Albany convention. I think it was 

 Charles Stewart who said to me, " Rambler is 

 John H. Martin, is he not?" 



" Yes, sir: how did you laiow ?" 



" He referred in one of his letters to his horse 

 'Nig,' and then I knew his identity at once." 



Later. — Rambler is now going to California, 

 and our readers will get the benefit of his west- 

 ern rambles. See his advertisement elsewhere.] 



E. R. 



CONDUCTIVITY OF HIVE-WALLS. 



EXPERIMENTS TO ASCERTAIN THE COMPARATIA'E 

 RESULTS BETWEEN THEM.] 



With a view to test the relative conductivity 

 of different hive-walls I recently spent about a 

 week in conducting experiments, and in mak- 

 ing preparations for them. 



Tire hives used were eight-frame Langstroth. 

 No. 1 was a single-walled hive, made of scant 

 X-inch lumber, sent to a neighbor as a sample 

 hive from the factory of Mr. Heddon. Nos. 2 

 and 3 were half an inch wider, and one-eighth 

 inch longer inside. Both of these were double 

 walled, with 1% inches for packing. The outer 

 walls were plump 9^ inclt. ship-lapped, and lin- 

 ed witli one thickness of building-paper to keep 

 the wind from driving in through the joints. 

 The inside walls were composed of picture- 

 backing, say about -^g inch thick. In No. 3 the 

 walls were firmly packed with cut straw, such 

 as is used for fodder, and in No. 3 they were 

 packed with granulated cork. 



The bottoms were removed. In order to 

 cause the cooling to take place as much as pos- 

 sible through tlie sides, each hive was covered 

 with two cushions of wool tacked down with 

 strips, the cushions weighing together 39 oz. 

 There was a differences of only half an ounce in 

 the weights of the three covers. To prevent tlie 

 escape of heat as much as possible downward, 

 similar cushions were fastened on tlie under 

 side of the bottoms. 



The first step was to verify my thermome- 

 ters. I tested five instruments simultaneously, 

 and. as it happened, the variations were so 

 slight that, in experiments of this kind, they 

 might be ignored. When evei'y thing was 

 ready, a tin pail containing l}^ lbs. of lioiling 

 water was set on each bottom-board, and the 

 hives set over them. The thermometers were 

 then inserted through slits in the quilts, so that 

 the bulbs extended into the water. After the 



mercury began to fall in each instrument, read- 

 ings wei'e recorded every half-hour for ten 

 hours and thirty-hve minutes. At the end of 

 that time the temperatures, which at the first 

 reading were 170. 171. and 17;")°. had dropped to 

 40i 48, and 58° respectively. It was noticeable, 

 that at first the thermometer indicated higher 

 in the single-walled hive than in either of the 

 others, the heat in the latter being absorbed, I 

 presume, in warming up the thicker walls. 



It would, perhaps, be interesting to the reader 

 to be able to examine the record of the readings 

 in detail, but it would take up considerable 

 space. 



The outside temperature during tiie time the 

 readings were taken averaged about 1° below 0. 

 The following figures show the times of cooling 

 down 10(3°: 



Single-walled hive 330 min. 



Straw-packed " 4.50 " 



Cork-packed " 4.59 " 



When this experiment was finished, I was not 

 satisfied with the result. The double-walled 

 hives did not stand close on the bottom -boards. 

 I tried to fill up the cracks with oakum; but 

 with a wind blowing, and a zei'o temperature, 

 a very slight crack would vitiate the result; so 

 I resolved upon another trial. 



In the second experiment I fixed up the bot- 

 tom-boards so that they would hold 2}{ inches 

 in depth of dry wood ashes, this being a very 

 good non-conductor of heat. On these beds the 

 hives were placed, and pressed down so that 

 they were comparatively air-tight at the bot- 

 tom. In this case the bulbs of the instruments 

 were not placed in the water, but extended be- 

 low the covers about two inches. During this 

 experiment the outside temperature averaged 

 about 10° above 0. The times of cooling down 

 through G.5° were as follows: 



Single-walled hive .390 min. 



Straw-packed " 4(30 " 



Cork-packed " 475 " 



In this experiment I found that, having the 

 hives close together, affected their rate of cool- 

 ing iJeiccptihTy. from which we may infer that, 

 by placing luves close to each other in clamps, 

 cellars, etc., they will keep warmer than when 

 a greater distance apart. I thought, too, that, 

 after all. keeping the bulbs in the water gave 

 safer indications of the rate of cooling, so I de- 

 termined to try it over again once more. 



In the tliird experiment the hives were placed 

 on beds of ashes as before; but I now packed 

 soft wet snow around each hive, and crowded 

 it up against the walls every hour to prevent 

 air-spaces forming. The bulbs of the instru- 

 ments were placed in the water as in the first 

 case. This experiment I regard as the most re- 

 liable of the three. The times of cooling down 

 75° were as follows: 



Single-walled hive .503 min. 



Straw-packed " 570 " 



Cork-packed ■' 675 " 



When Count Rumford made his elaborate ex- 

 periments on the conductivity of materials used 

 in clothing, about 100 years ago, his method 

 was this: '"A mercurial thermometer was sus- 

 pended in the axis of a cylindrical glass tube 

 ending with a globe, in such a manner that the 

 center of the bulb of the themometer occupied 

 the center of the globe; the space between the 

 internal surface and the bulb was filled with 

 the substance whose conductive power was to 

 be determined. The instrument was then 

 heated in boiling water, and afterward, being 

 plunged into a freezing mixture of pounded ice 

 ,and salt, the times of cooling 135° were noted." 



My experiments were imperfect in this re- 

 spect: Although the hives had been kept over 

 night in the kitchen, there was a great differ- 

 ence between their temperature and the tem- 



