THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



137 



for still further improvement. Indeed I am 

 confident that it can be so far improved, that 

 its capacity can be almost if not quite 

 doubled, and at the same time be more easily 

 operated. How it can be improved I will 

 endeavor to show, but before doing so I wish 

 to call attention to two of the most impor- 

 tant improvements in it, 



The first is the invention of a reel without 

 a shaft, that revolves on gudgeons, as in the 

 duplex and hollow reels of the U. S. honey 

 extractor, and that allows the combs to be 

 reversed without removing them from the 

 reel ; and, second, the invention of the re- 

 versible extractor that reverses the combs 

 without handling them. If the first has not 

 been as successful as it should have been, it 

 is because it has not been properly made 

 and put on the market, aud shows that it is 

 not best for any one person to have a monop- 

 oly of manufacture and sale of any one ar- 

 ticle. 



The oldest invention of a reversible ex- 

 tractor that I ever saw, was in the American 

 Agriculturalist of about 1S73. I believe the 

 time will come when all extractors will be 

 reversible and those for small honey pro- 

 ducers will also embody the hollow reel 

 principle. 



Extractors should be neatly finished and 

 attractive. They should be strong and dura- 

 ble, yet as light as possible without sacrific- 

 ing these necessities. A stand should con- 

 stitute a part of every extractor. The reel 

 shaft should run down through the stand 

 and have its lower boxes attached to it. In 

 large extractors at least, there should be at- 

 tached to the stand a frame work to support 

 the standard or cross bar that contains the 

 upper reel box. This arrangement takes all 

 strain from the can as it should be, and al- 

 lows it to sit in loose. 



The gearing to revolve the reel should 

 have the crank at the side of the machine. 

 The crank should be slip-geared with its 

 shaft, and should move in a vertical plane. 

 The rest of the gearing may be at the top of 

 the machine, 'but I think it best to have it at 

 the bottom and sides — horizontal shaft and 

 spur gear at the bottom and sprocket wheels 

 and chain belt at the sides. 



The brake should be applied directly to 

 the reel shaft or an enlargement of it, at the 

 bottom. It may be a simple lever operated 

 by the foot, the small arm pressing against 

 the shaft. It would be better to use two such 

 levers placed horizontally with each other 



and have their longer arms pressed apart by 

 a toggle joint, while the small arms grasp 

 the shaft. 



The reel should be stiff and strong and 

 made of steel. The material should be put 

 in such forms as will give the greatest 

 strength with the least amount of material, 

 so as to secure lightness. The proper work- 

 ing of the machine depends more on this 

 part than on any other. That I may be more 

 clearly understood hereafter, I will say that 

 by reel, I mean the whole revolving frame 

 work which carries the combs, and its at- 

 tachments within the can ; in a complete 

 reel consisting of shaft, or gudgeons as in 

 hollow reels, a top and bottom horizontal 

 frame work, which for convenience I will 

 call spiders, posts or uprights, comb baskets 

 or pockets, and reversing aparatus when the 

 machine is reversible. The parts of a spi- 

 der are : hub, spokes or arms, and side bar. 



The most important improvement yet to 

 be made in the extractor is the addition of a 

 device for reversing the combs while the 

 reel is in full motion or nearly so. This im- 

 provement would so increase the capacity of 

 the extractor that few bee-keepers will re- 

 quire a larger one than a four frame, and I 

 think it can be added to the machine without 

 much increasing its cost. An illustration of 

 such a device is given in the leader on the 

 present topic in the last issue of the Review. 

 The device shown is what I call the horizon- 

 tal shaft device. The principle on which it 

 works is shown by the engraving and the ex- 

 planations of it in the leader, but not as 

 clearly as it should be ; so I will try and 

 make the matter plainer. A round collar 

 should have been shown on the reel shaft 

 and the cogged (upright that gears with the 

 spur wheel on the inner end of the horizon- 

 tal shaft, should have been set to one side 

 and attached to the collar by a flange so as 

 to allow the horizontal shaft to be set in line 

 with the diameter of the spider. The cogged 

 upright could be attached directly to the 

 collar and the horizontal shaft set out of 

 line of the diameter of the spider , but such 

 an arrangement does not look so well. The 

 collar should have a perpendicular groove in 

 the inside of it to receive a pin attached to 

 the reef shaft so that it will revolve with the 

 shaft. It should have a neck to it above the 

 flange and cogged upright. In this neck 

 should be a horiznotal groove to receive a 

 band made in two parts and joined together 

 at opposite sides of the collar. At these two 



