FEBRUARY 15, 1916 



filled with a dense honey which the four- 

 frame hand-power machine will not extract 

 at any speed. The amount of slumgum can 

 be imagined, and also the needed capacity 

 of the melter to do an effective day's work. 

 I tested the previous melter whose details 

 were, to all intents, the same as the one 

 about to be described, in the presence of the 

 government apiaries inspector, Mr. S. V. 

 Westbrooke. We placed five quarts of hot 

 water, not boiling, in the melter; lighted 

 and pumped up one No. 5 Prince's "kero- 

 sene-stove to work the melter. Then we cut 

 out of their frames 20 Laug'stroth combs 

 filled solid with partly candied honey, wires 

 and all. This was in mid-winter, when the 

 honey was all but frozen. In the space of 

 twenty minutes from lighting the stove the 

 melter was empty. The inspector had held 

 intermittently a thermometer so that the 

 stream from the melter fell on the bulb, and 

 in no case did the temperature go over 146 

 degrees until the last few ounces were run- 

 ning away from the melter and the water 

 boiling at a terrific rate, which accounted 

 for the heat rising to 165 degrees. This 

 was for a few seconds only, before we put 

 the stove out, the trial having been a com- 

 plete vindication of the perfection of the 

 melter to handle solid combs, let alone cap- 

 pings. That melter differed from the one 

 about to be described only in having a cen- 

 tral tube that, sloping each way, necessi- 

 tated a glitter on each side, and a cross- 

 g:utter at the end to connect them. This 

 cross-gutter used, upon occasions of a great 

 rush of material, to block up, as it was not 

 water-jacketed, and the present melter also 

 permits of the screen for holding the slum- 

 gum, the previous one sending everything 

 into the separator. 



Before I describe the melter I want to 

 impress upon beekeepers a few facts about 

 latent heat. I find not a few melters whose 

 many tubes are filled with water which has 

 no possibility of coming in contact with the 

 heating surface of the lamp. This is a 

 great error. Steam contains 962 times the 

 latent heat that boiling water does. That is 

 to say, that, given a certain amount of boil- 

 ing water applied to a surface, it would 

 melt only one 963d part as much honey or 

 wax as that same amount of water connect- 

 ed with steam would melt; so that all heat- 

 ing surfaces in a melter should be surface- 

 heated with live steam, and not merely 

 boiling water. Furthermore, the deeper the 

 tube the cooler the lower portion of that 

 tube as compared with the top. Now, if we 

 employ a tube of small size the boiling 

 steam melts the honey first which is at the 

 top of the tube. This honey flows doAvn 



the small diameter on to the (usually) flat 

 but somewhat cooler surface below the 

 tubes, and there meets no other cooler wax 

 to which to give any surplus heat over its 

 own melting-point, which, it is more than 

 likely, it absorbed from the tube — i. e., sup- 

 posing the tube, of course, to be filled with 

 live steam and not merely just of boiling 

 water. Therefore the deeper our tube the 

 less damage from honey being too long 

 heated; and the more efficacious our melter 

 from honey which can hardly avoid becom- 

 ing super-heated at the top of the tubes 

 giving off its surplus heat to that almost 



)4 3/4" 



^Oi 



Fig.l 



Container 



Inside Endvjall with 

 opcninci cut rfady jo s01dch\ 

 tub£s andhoncys^'cd into 



PI ACL 



SOL OCR TUBE 

 Wliv OUTSIDE 



WOODEN 



'Jacket 



Outside End Wall 

 folded ready to 

 solder onto tube 



END WALL 



-I3'y^-- 



flLLER 



Exit ^rzi] 



Cross-section and plan view of Bartlett-Miller's 

 cappiug-melter. 



but not quite melted wax lying nearer the 

 bottom of the tube. This is a scientific 

 principle which, once only a theory with 

 me, I have proved to be fact by methods 

 which it is out of place at this juncture to 

 explain. Suffice to explain that, the deeper 

 our tubes, the more effective, and the less 

 dangerous our melter will be up to a certain 

 point; for we must not have our tubes too 

 deep for i^ractieal work or we should never 

 get enough honey into the melter to cover 

 them. 



I wanted a melter that the ordinary 

 practical bee-man could, if necessary, make 



