Tmrn mTsammicKn beu jQummmi^. 



533 



.llajor Franccsoo de Ilru!<rlika. 



The foUowiuK biographical sketch of 

 Major Ilruschka, is from the pen of 

 Mr. Charles Dadant, of Hamilton, Ills., 

 who wrote it for Gleanitu/s some time 

 since : 



The Major Francesco de Ilruschka 

 died in Venice, May 11, 1888, aged about 

 75 years, leaving a beloved wife and 

 several sons. >Jothing is publicly 

 known, so far, of his birth and younger 

 years, the major having been very re- 

 luctant to speak of himself. 



From information published by an 

 Italian bee-journal, L' Apicollni-c (Aug- 

 ust. 1878). it appears that he served in 

 the army, and, later, in the navy, of 



Major Francesco dc Hrusdika. 



the Austrian Empire, the Italian pro- 

 vince of Venetia, in which he lived, 

 being then under the dominion of the 

 Emperor of Austria. 



lie had attained the rank of major 

 when he relinquished the service to 

 enjoy the happiness of living with his 

 family in his home at Dolo, near Ven- 

 ice, where he kept a large number of 

 colonies of bees, rearing Italian queens 

 for Germany, and manufacturing hives 

 and other bee-keepers' appliances. 



His increasing business compelled 

 him to remove to Venice, where he 

 resided for part of the time. The city 

 of Venice is built on 70 or 80 very small 

 islands, which connect with one another 

 by more than 300 bridges. Instead of 

 streets, Venice has mostly canals, trav- 

 ersed by gondolas, which are used as 

 conveyances from house to house, in- 

 stead of street-cars or carriages. The 

 city is separated from the term firmn by 

 a lagoon of shallow water, from two to 

 four miles wide, on which the gondolas 

 may be seen day and night. Such posi- 

 tion makes Venice the most wonder- 

 ful city for the tourist to visit, but, for 

 the same reason, the worst city in which 

 to keep bees, that can be imagined. 



Hruschka owned a palace, in the city 

 in wliich he dwelled, though boarding 

 at the hotel, to follow his trade, while 

 his bees were at Dolo. 



Fig. l—Hruschka'a First Extractor. 



From what he narrated, on his inven- 

 tion, to the Italian bee-keepers, it ap- 

 pears that, in 18<>5, a small piece of 

 comb in a dish having been put in a 



funnel-shaped ; a glass was fastened 

 under it to receive the running honey. 

 The glass was soon discarded, and 

 replaced by a stopper. The box was 

 suspended by a rope, and turned like a 

 sling (Fig. 1). But as the work of ex- 

 tracting was very slow with such a 

 primitive machine. Ilruschka invented 

 a large, triangular frame, at the center 

 of which a vertical spindle, turning on 

 a pivot, supported a horizontal beam 12 

 feet long, at both ends of which the 

 boxes were suspended. Two ropes, one 

 rolling round wliile the other unrolled, 

 moved the slinging-boxes, which, drop- 

 ping vertically as soon as the motion 

 stopped, prevent the honey from run- 

 ning out. The length of the beam 

 helped the extracting by increasing the 

 speed of the motion (Fig. 3). But this 

 big machine proving too cumbersome, 

 Ilruschka invented another extractor, 

 with a crank and two different-sized 

 wheels, joined by a string. Kearly all 

 the machines now in use are only mod- 

 (ications, or. rather, improvements, of 

 this (Fig. 2). 



Fiij. S—]Ini.sdika\s Perfected Honey-Extractor. 



basket fixed to a rope, and whirled 

 around like a toy, by his little son, a 

 few drops of honey were slung out of 

 some of the cells. These few drops 

 were, for his observing mind, the germ 



Fig. 3 — Hnu^chln'!^ Second Extractor. 



of the large step in bee-culture which 

 resulted from his invention. The appli- 

 cation of this idea underwent several 

 changes and experiments. 



The first machine made by Hruschka 

 was a square tin box, the bottom of 

 which, covered with wire cloth, was 



Reduced models of these first three 

 extractors were exhibited at the Expos- 

 ition of Insects, held in Paris, in 1868, 

 entered under the name of Angelo 

 Lessame. of Dolo, Venetia. It is very 

 probable that the Major de Ilruschka, 

 in borrowing this name, was prompted 

 by his modesty. It is useless to add, 

 that tlie grateful remembrance of Ilrus- 

 chka will last as long as his invention 

 will be used by bee-keepers— I mean, 

 for ever. Chas. Dadant. 



Hapiilton, lU. 



We noticed the death of this very 

 distinguished gentleman and apiarist 

 several weeks ago, on page 419, and 

 gave the interesting hi-story of his in- 

 vention of the mel-extractor. The 

 additional biography given above by 

 our friend Dadant, is very entertaining, 

 and with the engravings, present the 

 history of the development of the use- 

 ful honej'-extractor very clearly. It 

 doubtless will be read with no little 

 pleasure by e\ei-y bee-keeper. 



