166 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



this is a mistake, as heat will improve in- 

 stead of injuring either comb or extracted 

 honeys. 



There are several other conveniences that 

 I might describe, but I fear it would take too 

 much space to make them understood with- 

 out cuts. 



Mauston, Wis. April 22, 1893. 



Is an Automatic, Reversible Extractor Really 



Worth the Effort Being Expended 



in Its Invention T — Uncapping 



Machines a Greater Need. 



C. C. MIIiLEK. 



"Alas, the slender spigot stream we stay, 

 While from the bung the cider runs away." 



T THIISK you've 

 X struck the truth 

 pretty straight, Mr. 

 Editor, in thinking 

 that the matter of 

 uncapping really 

 needs more atten- 

 tion than does some- 

 thing to save the 

 few seconds of time 

 necessary to turn 

 a frame in an ex- 

 tractor ; for, unless 

 the honey is pretty thin, there will be 

 much more time employed in uncapping 

 than in running the extractor. 



Of late years I have extracted very little, 

 and have never had anything but the Pea- 

 body extractor, and while I have sometimes 

 longed for something better I have felt that 

 for the little extracting I do it doesn't make 

 a great deal of difference. 



In working the extractor, I don't mind the 

 turning, nor putting in the combs, and iiot 

 so very much taking out the combs, but 

 turning the combs in the extractor, with the 

 attendant liability to get honey daubed over 

 every thing, is the part that makes extract- 

 ing especially disagreeable. Anything to 

 help that is a desideratum. 



So I don't wonder at the desire for some- 

 thing to reverse the combs automatically. 

 But isn't a little too much stress put on the 

 "automatic" part? How much would you 

 give for an automatic spoon to carry your 

 soup to your mouth? If you had one you 

 would still have to give your attention to 



having your mouth at the right place and 

 opening it at the proper time, and as your 

 hand is at the time unoccupied with any- 

 thing else it may just as well be holding the 

 spoon. The simple fact that there is some 

 automatic part about an extractor may 

 amount to nothing, and it is no better than 

 another extractor unless it will save time or 

 labor. 



Now let us see what we really want? I 

 mean more particularly the great mass of 

 beekeepers who have only a moderate 

 amount of extracting to do. The first thing 

 is to get rid of the "dauby" part of revers- 

 ing the combs. If we can have the inside 

 of the extractor so constructed that the comb 

 can be reversed, without taking it out of the 

 extractor, than I think the worst part of the 

 trouble is overcome. Nothing automatic is 

 needed for that. As to methods, that is best 

 which does it with the least time and labor, 

 whether it be automatic or not. As I said, I 

 have never owned anothing but the Pea- 

 body, but I have tried others to a consider- 

 able extent, and I must say that I can hard- 

 ly see how an automatic reversing can be 

 any better than such a one as is accomplish- 

 ed in the Cowan. You slow up the motion, 

 just as you must do with an automatic, then 

 a little push with the left hand reverses the 

 combs, and on you go again, without stop- 

 ping the motion or the direction of the 

 motion. Now what better would it be to 

 have it work automatically? With the 

 Cowan you can turn either way or both ways 

 in succession, and I think it a bit easier to 

 turn in the same direction all the time, where- 

 as with all automatics yet brought out the 

 machine must not only slow up but actually 

 stop to reverse and then turn in the oppo- 

 site direction. The left hand is not occupied 

 at anything else, and may just as well do 

 the reversing, and if you take account of 

 the labor of the left hand it is offset by the 

 fact that less labor is required on the part of 

 the right hand, for it certainly takes less 

 force to slow the machine than to stop, and 

 it is better to have the labor divided than to 

 have it all put on one hand. To say the 

 least,I think the Cowan can be reversed in 

 as little time as though automatic, so 1 

 think it has no disadvantage either as to 

 time or labor. 



Please don't understand me as opposing 

 automatic appliances. In the majority of 

 cases they may be very advantageous, only 

 it mast not be understood that in all cases 



