Dec. 15, 1911 



757 



deep, the wax-pan just fitting under it. The 

 honey-spout at the left-hand end of the sep- 

 arator is three inches long and lU inches 

 deep, so that it is X inch below the top of 

 the wax-can. 



AH of our extracting was done in a screen- 

 ed honey-house with a shield at the South; 

 and if a sand-storm or big wind came up, 

 the wax chilled on top and formed layers; 

 but the honey and wax in the slumgum- 

 basket never chilled, as they were too hot. 

 At one time I had to quit work on account 

 of the wind blowing out the fire under the 

 capping-melter. But later in the summer 

 the wind does not blow so often, and the 

 wax is then solid, for the new wax that 

 keeps coming in always fills up the holes or 

 crevices so that the whole chunk, when it is 

 removed, is all together in one piece. If 

 the machine were used in a honey-house 

 having solid walls where no wind could 

 strike the separator, solid wax would be the 

 result every time. Out in the open a piece 

 of burlap is thrown over the top, and a board 

 placed over it. The pile of cakes at the left of 

 Fig. 2 shows what can be done, even in this 

 windy country. The largest cake in the 

 middle of the pile weighs 19>^ lbs. If the 

 wax-pan shown on top of the pile had been 

 full, the cake would have weighed 23 lbs. 



The proportions of this separator were de- 

 cided on after taking into consideration 

 that, if one man does the work, much time 

 is consumed when he is out in the yard 

 brushing the bees off combs and bringing 

 in the honey, and the melter, of course, is 

 idle while he is gone. There is an advan- 

 tage, therefore, in having the separator hold 

 a good deal of honey so as to retain as much 

 heat as possible while the operator is other- 

 wise engaged. If a smaller amount of hon- 

 ey were retained in the separator, the wax 

 would become cold during the interval, and 

 there would be separate chunks which would 

 make extra work in melting them over. If 

 there are two operators on hand, or if 



the bee-escape is used and enough honey 

 taken off for the whole day, there is not so 

 much need of a great amount of honey in 

 the separator. The separator shown holds 

 about two-thirds of a can of honey before it 

 begins to run out of the honey-spout at the 

 left end. 



The wax-pan has two handles as shown. 

 An iron rod runs through these and through 

 the outside walls of the separator, thus keep- 

 ing the wax-pan in place. It can be seen 

 that, as soon as the honey commences to 

 run, the tendency of the wax-pan would be 

 to float on top, so that it has to be held 

 down in some such way to keep it from 

 floating like a boat. The idea, of course, in 

 having the warm honey surround this pan 

 is to keep the wax melted. When the work 

 is finished, or at any time, for that matter, 

 the wax-pan may be slipped slightly so as 

 to clear the spout, and then lifted out after 

 the honey has been drawn out away from 

 it by means of the screw-cap opening at the 

 bottom of the separator. After standing 

 over night every thing will be cold, and all 

 the honey may be drawn otT except about 

 half an inch. This amount, however, does 

 no harm, even though the first wax that 

 runs in is chilled. By the time verj^ much 

 work is done it is all melted again. 



The slumgum-basket is made of >^-inch- 

 mesh galvanized wire cloth. I have used a 

 cheese-cloth inside the basket, but it makes 

 slower work and is a great deal of inconven- 

 ience. The cheese-cloth is really unneces- 

 sary, any way, for the wire cloth gets near- 

 ly all theslumgum, the rest remaining with 

 the wax, in the right-hand compartment. 

 This small layer of wax, together with a lit- 

 tle slumgum, is melted over again the next 

 day. 



When the work is done for the day, the 

 slumgum-basket should always be emptied 

 and kept outside and not put back, because 

 the wax and fine slumgum that drains 

 through the strainer will become cold over 



Fig. 1.— Severin's improved honey and wax separator..^ The compartment at the right is the slumgum 

 strainer or basket; that at the left is the wax-pan. the space around itibeing for honey. 



