NOVEMBER 15, 1914 



A METHOD FOM 



897 



LY INSERTING FOUNDATION IN WIRED 

 FRAMES 



RY F. R. GORTON 



Having- occasion to fill several hundred 

 wired brood-frames with full sheets of 

 foundation I found the device herewith 

 illustrated of the most satisfactory service. 



A %-ineh board 7% x 16% is nailed to a 

 bottom-board for holding the frame in place 

 so that the top-bar rests firmly against one 

 side of a regular hive bottom-board as 

 shown in Fig. 1. A thin piece 4 x 161/2 

 inches, shown at A, fits loosely inside the 

 frame for forcing the wedge into place. 



In using the device, the frame is placed 

 upright, resting on its top-bar, and the 

 sheet of foundation is set into its groove 

 behind the wires. The wedge is now insert- 

 ed loosely, and the frame laid upon the 

 board in the jjosition shown in Fig. 1. By 

 means of the board A, the lever C, and the 

 short piece B, the wedge is forced into its 

 groove with one pull on the lever. 



If the frame is wired so that the free 

 ends of the wire are at the right, all that 

 is necessary to imbed the wires in the 

 foundation is to hold the end-bars down and 

 press the electric key G (Fig. 2) for about 

 five seconds, and the imbedding is finished. 



The imbedding feature 



is made and operated 



as follows : 



Two strips of tin 



about 1x4 inches are 



bent squarely at a 



point % inch from one 



end, and nailed to the 



%-in. board as shown 



at E and F. These tins 



are placed so as just 



to touch the upper and 



lower wires when the 



end-bars are pressed 



down, thus stretching 



the wires tightly across 



the foundation. On 



pressing the key at G 



the electric current 



traverses the wires, 



thus heating them and melting them into the 

 foundalion, all four wires at once. 



The electric connections are made with a 

 110-volt lighting circuit. H is an ordinary 

 screw plug htted with a double cord J, one 

 -free end being connected at E and the other 

 with the key G. The key is a strip of 

 spring brass attached at one end by a screw 

 to the bottom-board, and bent down at the 

 other. Its i^urpose is to break the electric 

 circuit when the wires become sufficiently 

 heated to melt them into the foundation. 

 Ordinarily the bend in the spring holds it 

 away from the tin F; but a slight pressure 

 makes the contact. The brass may be wound 

 with tape to keep the finger from coming in 

 contact with any part of the circuit ; but it 

 is [)ractically impossible to suffer a shock 

 of any consequence. When the plug is 

 screwed in place of one of the fuses through 

 which the current has to pass to a set of 

 lamps in the house as shown, the same cur- 

 rent must pass through the wires of the 

 brood-frame. If six or eight lamps are 

 turned on, the current will be sufficient to 

 heat the wires in about five seconds. Care 

 must be taken not to get the wires so hot 

 that they melt themselves entirely through 

 the foundation. A few minutes' practice 

 enables one to do fine work. 



In case the lamps cannot be used in this 

 manner as the controlling resistance, 150 

 feet of the wire used in the frames can 

 readily be arranged in zigzag form on nails 

 as shown in Fig. 3. This will reduce the 

 current to about the strength obtained by 

 turning on eight sixteen-candle-power lamps 

 in the method shown in Fig. 2. After a 



f^AIN W/RES 



To Lamps 



