170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1922 



he and his wife were intending to spend 

 their winter in Florida they would pay their 

 own expenses back home, of course. When 

 the professor arrived I had the timber for 

 the tower all on the ground — 8 pieces 6 

 inches square and 24 feet long, in order to 

 put up a 48-foot tower. Our first tower was 

 put together while it was lying on the 

 ground, and pulled up by a lot of men and a 

 capstan. My good friend Clipfell had never 

 put up a tower with sticks that long. The 

 blue-print called for 12 pieces 16 feet long 

 instead of 8 (as I had it), 24 feet long. But 

 he said he thought he could do it all right. 

 I had the anchor irons all ready, set in ce- 

 ment sometime before, which was now hard 

 enough to stand the strain. 



Perhaps I might explain right here that 

 I made a short cut for these corner sup- 

 ports. I procured four good-sized barrels, 

 took out the heads, and then removed the 

 hoops from each barrel half way up, leav- 

 ing the staves on the lower half so they 

 could be wedged or spread out tunnel-shaped 

 at the bottom. I wedged in cross-pieces so 

 as to hold the staves spread out. Then I 

 dug a hole where each corner was to be, 

 large enough to let the barrel in, with the 

 top, where the hoops remained, 6 or 8 inches 

 above the level of the ground. The anchor 

 irons were then cemented in the center of 

 each of these barrels. They were simply 

 pieces of old iron, say 1 by 3 inches, with a 

 one-incli hole near the upper end. These 

 irons were set in the barrel just where the 

 corner posts were to be located. In the hole 

 in the top was put a one-inch bolt long 

 enough to go thru the bottom of each 6-inch 



timber. It 

 was not a 

 very difficult 

 matter to set 

 up the four 

 lower timbers 

 and nail on 

 the proper 

 braces to 

 make the bot- 

 tom half of 

 the t o w e r. 

 Now when 

 you come to 

 think of set- 

 t i n g four 

 more 6-inch 

 timbers 24 

 feet long on 

 top of the 

 first four it 

 looked to me 

 almost like 

 an impossibil- 

 ity. I asked 

 the professor 

 if he did not 

 want one or 

 more expert 

 carpenters. He said he did not want any 

 carpenters at all, but a good stout col- 

 ored boy to do as he told him, and one who 



A college professor, and at the 



same time an expert mechanic 



in his working ris;, Prof. C. D. 



Clipfell. 



was not afraid to climb would be all right. 

 Our neighbor Eood let us have such a boy 

 who had some knowledge of carpenter work, 

 and with his help we thought we could do 

 the work all right; but the boy got it into 

 his head that he was not getting pay enough 

 for fiuch an undertaking, and so we let him 

 go. Friend Kaiser got a short leave of ab- 

 sence to turn in and help. Maybe you would 

 like to know just how these two men set 

 four sticks of timber, each 24 feet long, on 

 top of four similar timbers already up. 

 They did it this way: 



A stout rope was attached to the middle 

 of one of the 24-foot pieces. Then with 

 rope and tackle they hauled it up to the 

 top of the first four. When swung around 

 vertically it reached 12 feet above the first 

 four. I think they managed to haul it up 

 a little more than 12 feet, and then braced 

 and chained it securely in place. With the 

 aid of this first one they pulled up a second 

 one and got it in place and bolted it to the 

 splice already made in the two sticks so it 

 could be straightened up and stayed 48 feet 

 high. With this one in place, of course it 

 was an easy matter to set the other three. 

 Then Mr. Clipfell finished the tower with 

 the help of Wesley, who stood on the ground 

 and pulled a rope to lift up the stuff. Wes- 

 ley was a little afraid to climb so high up 

 in the air. 



Before I go any further let me explain 

 that, during all my life, I have regarded a 

 college professor as all right before his class 

 of pupils; but with a hoe or a set of car- 

 penter tools I did not suppose that, as a 

 rule, he would be ' ' anywhere. ' ' I found 

 Mr. Clipfell was an expert carpenter, and 

 could do almost anything in the way of 

 woodwork or ironwork if he had the proper 

 tools. Of course we had blueprints of the 

 whole edifice, and several times I began to 

 worry because the professor did not pay 

 much attention to the blueprints. Finally 

 one day when I was feeling troubled about 

 some of the short cuts, he gave me one of 

 my happy surprises, by saying: 



' ' Why, Mr. Eoot, if it will make you feel 

 any better about it I might mention that I 

 made all the blueprints that you have my- 

 self. ' ' 



"You made them?" said I. 



"Certainly. I made all the blueprints 

 that were ever sent out by the Wyndmere 

 Electric Windmill Co." 



And then I had my second vision of a 

 professor in overalls — you might at this 

 time say a college professor in overalls. I 

 might add that my good friend, after he 

 had finished the tower and set up the wind- 

 mill, did a lot of things for me for about 

 half the regular wages, or for nothing at 

 all. So far as I can learn he has now left 

 college work and mechanical work, and is 

 growing great big red apples away up in 

 Minnesota. 



After submitting the above to my friend 

 Clipfell, he adds to it as below; 



