1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



273 



up. With the steam-heated knife in good 

 working condition I think two men can un- 

 cap honey, either partly or entirely capped, 

 for any man at an eight-frame extractor; 

 but the boiler for generating the steam 

 must be so arranged as to take advantage 

 of all the heat a good one-burner gasoline- 

 stove will generate going full blast; and 

 even then the uncapper will have to wait a 

 bit on his knife. In other words, two men 

 shoving the knives through big fat combs 

 of solid honey will cool them down until 

 they can not be jerked right through with- 

 out tearing the cells. The little boiler with 



flues in it, which I described in a previous 

 article in this journal, does very well, but 

 would do better if it generated twice the 

 steam, Perhaps if this were the case one 

 fast man could uncap for the man at the 

 extractor. This would save a third of the 

 labor in the extracting house. Summariz- 

 ing these general remarks about the steam- 

 heated uncapping-knife, I will say that, if 

 one is to have an extracting-outfit, up to 

 date in every respect, he must have steam- 

 heated uncapping-knives. 



Right here I want to have my little say 

 about that question of hot or cold uncap- 



O. B. METCALFE'S WAY OF UNCAPPING WITH THE STEAM HEATED KNIFE. 

 Instead ol resting the end-bar of the frame on a nail-point, the projection of the top-bar Is set Into a one- 

 inch hole In the cross-piece of the uncapplng-can. 



