THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



109 



put a bushel or so of combs into a barrel, 

 I take a stick that is three or four feet 

 long and two or three inclies in diameter 

 and with it pound and break them up in- 

 to small pieces; then another basket of 

 comb is thrown in and mashed up; and 

 so on, until the barrel is filled. This 

 mashinj; or breakinjf up of the combs is 

 important. Perhaps soft water might be 

 better for this .soaking, but I take hard 

 water right out of the well. 



When I am ready to boil the comb I 

 place a large wash boiler (used exclusive- 

 ly for this purpose) on the stove, and fill 

 it about half full of water. I have two 

 sacks (also used exclusively) for this pur- 

 pose of such a size that one will fit in the 

 boiler with some room to spare after it is 

 filled with comb. .-Vfter filling a sack 

 with comb I tie a stout string around the 

 moutli of it; and this string is long 

 enough to hang over the side of the boiler, 

 and thus furnish a convenient means 

 of turning it over during the boiling or 

 for removing it when that process is com- 

 pleted. It is then thrown into the boiler 

 and no attention paid to it until the wa- 

 ter begins to boil briskly. I then take a 

 long round stick about four inches in di- 

 ameter at the large end, rounded and 

 made very smooth with sand paper so it 

 will not tear the sack, and with it press 

 and work the sack around, keeping it un- 

 der the water, and turning it by the 

 string previously mentioned. This press- 

 ing of the sack and contents is vigorously 

 and thoroughly done. After the water 

 begins to boil it requires only a short 

 time for the wax to all escape from the 

 sack. In order to tell when the sack has 

 been in long enough, I raise it up by the 

 string and let it drain until most of the 

 water has run out, then catch a few drops 

 in a dipper. If I find these few drops free 

 from wax, the sack is taken out. If tra- 

 ces of wax are seen it is boiled longer. 

 The object of having two sacks is that 

 the operator may be kept busy; as a sack, 

 when first removed from the boiler, is so 

 hot that the refuse cannot be emptied 

 out. 



After two or three sacks of comb have 

 been boiled, the wax is dipped off by 

 means of a long handled dipper and put 

 into a large pan. Afterwards it is either 

 boiled in another water to free it from 

 impurities; or, if at a time when a sun ex- 

 tractor will work, it is freed from impu- 

 rities by running it through that. As I 

 have mine arranged it will free wax from 

 foreign matter as well or better than can 

 be done by the use of water. 



My present solar wax extractor is a 

 small one called the Doolittle; and, as 

 there are probably thousands of these in 

 use, it may be of interest for me to explain 

 how I arranged mine so it wonld cleanse 

 or purify wax. In the first place, when 

 I received it I put in another bottom 

 over the one already there, as there were 

 cracks between the boards of which it 

 was formed. The whole inside was also 

 painted black. The sheet iron tray on 

 the inside was so made that the cover 

 could not fit down tight, so a strip was 

 cut off this sheet iron, on each side, the 

 whole length, so that it would fit down in- 

 side the extractor. The sides of this tray 

 were then bent over a little, so that when 

 a strip was nailed on each side, under- 

 neath, to support it, it was still low 

 enough so it did not prevent the cover 

 from shutting down tight. Strips were 

 also nailed on all around the edge of the 

 cover in order to make it fit as tightly 

 as possible. The piece ot screen that 

 went across the tray was taken off and 

 the tray reversed, thus bringing the open 

 end up and the closed end down. In 

 this closed end a few fine holes were 

 punched about an inch and a half up 

 from the bottom, so that the liquid wax 

 could, when it rose that high, escape 

 through into the pan below. I keep the 

 extractor inclined but slightly, so the 

 wax will run slowly, and most of the for- 

 eign matter settles on the tray before the 

 wax rises high enough to drip into the 

 pan below. The extractor being made so 

 tight, the heat is retained and the wax 

 in the pan stays liquid so long that the 

 dirt settles to the bottom the same as 



