886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



stand, took off the screen cloth, and opened 

 the entrance and put on the covers. I did 

 not g-et time to look at them until the second 

 day after, when I found them all right ex- 

 cept two frames in one hive, one solid with 

 honey, and the other solid with honey, 

 and a little brood broken down. 



A. J. Burns. 

 Black Mountain, Cal., Aug-. 24. 



[Although j'ou do. not say so, I take it 

 that the pieces of heavy paper which you 

 tack over the top of the hive in the form of 

 an inverted letter U were to shade the bees 

 and the combs. — Ed.] 



^ 



I 



WHO FIRST DEVISED THE BREECH-LOADING 

 SMOKER? 



Friend Root: — I see by your issue for July 

 1, page 594, that I am likely to come in con- 

 flict again with the Root Co. Before, it was 

 an adjustable bottom-board to a hive; but 

 now it is in reg^ard to smoker construction. 

 Several years ago I vs as in need of a smo- 

 ker, so I thought to improvise one from ma- 

 terial I had at hand. Two pieces of board 

 and some sheepskin and wire springs con- 

 stituted the bellows. A tin baking-powder 

 can with the bottom knocked out was the 

 basis of the fire-box. In place of the bot- 

 tom, a metal nozzle, conical in shape, was 

 fastened in the place of the bottom. A 

 wooden handle was made fast to the cover; 

 a wire screen fitted into the nozzle at its 

 junction with the tin can, and the whole 

 was attached to the bel- 

 lows as herewith shown. 

 You see my smoker was 

 a breech-loader, as the 

 nozzle was fastened to 

 the other end of the fire- 

 box tightly. The can-cover removed shows 

 at the right. 



I afterward constructed several smokers 

 for Mr. F. S. Hall, a Georgia bee-keeper, 

 upon a different plan, his idea. Then aft- 

 erward I built one for a 

 my own use, with a fire- 

 box of sheet iron to slip 

 into the outer tin case 

 from the upper end, as 

 herewith shown. A shows the sheet-iron 

 fire-box removed; a, feed-hole; perforated 

 bottom is seen at the right of a. Both the 

 top and bottom of this sheet-iron tube were 

 perforated. 



Last season I planned some improve- 

 ments in the fire-box, 

 and began the construc- 

 tion of a new smoker, 

 as here shown, but have 

 not had time to finish 

 one for this season's use. 1 is the tin cas- 

 ing, with vent-holes to let out the heat; 

 nozzle firmly attached to the casing; perfo- 

 rated plates at a. 2 is a sheet- iron fire- box 

 open at each end, having a perforated plate 

 at a. 3 is an ash-box slipping over the 

 end of the fire-box. 4 is a perforated plate. 

 You will see that this is a muzzle-loader, 

 but slipped into the outside casing from the 



o; 



:it 



bottom end. You will also notice in the 

 smoker I went back to my old original bak- 

 ing-powder-box smoker, only adding the 

 loose sheet-iron-cylinder fire-box. I have 

 some other improvements in the valves and 

 in the construction of the bellows which I 

 am working out. 



I thoug-ht best to explain this to you, so 

 in case I "come out " with a new smoker 

 you will not suggest that I borrowed' my 

 ideas from your new smoker illustrated on 

 page 594, as before mentioned. 



C. F. Parker. 



Mentone, Ala., July 9, 1903. 



[I will explain to our readers that Mr. 

 Parker used a tilting- floor bottom-board 

 before we brought out the one illustrated in 

 the catalog of this year; but the tilting fea- 

 ture proved to be so unsatisfactory that, 

 after one season's use, we abandoned it ; 

 and the snme is true of the breech-loading 

 feature in smokers — another feature in 

 which Mr. Parker has anticipated us. 

 But the breech-loading feature goes away 

 back to 1864, in a patent that was issued to 

 a Mr. Kidder. A more modern application 



THE ROOT-CALLBRRATH HIVE-STAND. — SEE 

 EDITORIALS AND P. 885. 



of it that would apply to bellows smokers 

 was anticipated by Mr. G. W. Brodbeck in 

 1892. But Mr. Brodbeck, if I am correct, 

 replenishes, not by the breech-loading but 

 by the muzzle-loading part of his smoker. 

 It is a difficult matter nowadays to make 

 an entirely new discovery or invention; for 

 example, the dual plan of getting queens, 

 as mentioned in this issue by A. I. R. — 

 Ed.] 



