38 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



Among the disadvantages of this method 

 we may mention the poor quality of the wax. 

 All the wax that I have obtained or seen 

 from a hot-water press has been very dark, 

 and had, therefore, to be refined if a good price 

 were secured. In order to do rapid work 

 with this press a large one must be used, 

 for it takes considerable time to get the wax 

 out; and the only way to do rapid work is 

 to use a press of a large size. This makes 

 the first cost very high. Furthermore, after 

 the wax is out, there is the inconvenience of 

 removing it from the surface of the water. 

 It may be dipped off without much trouble, 

 although this takes too much time, and is 

 tedious work if all the wax is taken off. If 

 any wax is left on the water, the refuse, 

 when it is taken out in the sack, will absorb 

 some of it. A better way is to have a very 

 wide though shallow opening just below the 

 level of the wax, and at the proper time al- 

 low the wax to run off through it. If this 

 opening or gate is below the wax level, it 

 would seem as though all of the wax and a 

 little of the water would pass out through it, 

 but such is not the case; and the only way to 

 get all the wax off by this method is to in- 

 troduce more hot water through a tube into 

 the lower part of the press until all the wax 

 overflows. Another way to separate the wax 



FIG. 3. — THE ORIGINAL HATCH WAX-PRESS. 



This illustrates the g-eneral form of press that is 

 tiow used by many bee-keepers all over this country. 



from the water is to have a spout at the bot- 

 tom of the tank and draw off almost all the 

 water; then place another receptacle under 

 the spout and allow the i-est of the contents 

 of the tank to pass into it. The pressure 

 meanwhile should be kept on the refuse. 



STEAM-PRESSES. 



A steam-press has the advantage in this 

 respect, that the wax will fall down below the 

 refuse, and immediately pass out of the 



spout, leaving nothing in the way above. 

 When the refuse is ready to be taken out, 

 cold water may be poured into the boiling 

 water below the false bottom, and the gener- 

 ation of steam stopped. 



One of the disadvantages of the steam 

 method is that the wax is as dark-colored as 

 that obtained from the hot-water press. 

 Furthermore, if the screw be raised and re- 

 moved entirely, the refuse has to be shaken 

 up before the pressure is applied again. 

 This must be repeated a number of times in 

 order that all the wax, or, more properly 

 speaking, all that it is practicable to obtain, 

 is removed. The great trouble with steam- 

 presses, and, in fact, with most wax-presses, is 

 that the last ten per cent of wax comes out 

 so slowly that the work is often hurried, and 

 there may then be a loss of from five to ten 

 per cent. In the steam-press, and also in 

 the hot-water press, another melting-tank 

 has to be used if rapid work is to be done. 



THE HATCH-GEMMIL WAX-PRESS. 



At the last convention of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association, in 1905, Mr. C. A. 

 Hatch, of Richland Center, Wis., convinced 

 me that I ought to make a more thorough 

 trial of the unheated press, which up to that 

 time I had not tried extensively; therefore, 

 for about six months I conducted a series of 

 experiments with wax-presses, which were 

 on a reasonably large scale, for I do not be- 

 lieve that one or two experiments with small 

 quantities of comb prove any thing at all. I 

 have found that the unheated press, as ordi- 

 narily used, wastes anywhere jrom 8 to 10 

 per cent oj the wax, but that this loss can be 

 reduced to less than 3 or even 2 per cent, 

 if the whole operation be repeated, and, 

 contrary to my expectations, the entire time 

 for the two meltings, including two pressings 

 after each melting, enabled me to turn out 

 beautiful yellow wax at the rate of from 7 to 

 10 lbs. an hour. There are some disadvan- 

 tages, of course, but they are not serious, 

 and, take it all in all. I am convinced that 

 the unheated press deserves much more cred- 

 it than it has yet received. 



Before going on to describe in detail this 

 unheated press, it may be well to glance back 

 briefly over the history of its development. 

 I believe that Mr. C. A. Hatch, of Wisconsin, 

 first constructed a press embodying the prin- 

 ciple. He used for a short time a press de- 

 signed by W. W. Cary, of Massachusetts, in 

 which the combs were pressed while sub- 

 merged in hot water, but he believed that he 

 could improve on this plan by applying the 

 pressure in a diffei'ent receptacle without the 

 use of hot water during the pressing. While 

 there may have been others who used a sim- 

 ilar plan before this, Mr. Hatch is probably 

 the first one in this country to bring it to the 

 notice of the public. Later, Mr. F. A. Gem- 

 mil, of Ontario, Canada, also worked with 

 such a press, and it finally came to be known 

 as the Hatch-Gemmil wax-press. In exper- 

 imenting with this press I have made some 

 changes which, in my opinion, seemed to be 

 necessary. Fig. 3 will show the original 



