THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW. 



3'3 



j^ether. After standing awhile the wax 

 will harden and he in good .sliaj)e for melt- 

 ing np for market, etc. From the small 

 amount of hot water that is needed, it is 

 less troiihle to change it each time; for if 

 three or four pails are kept going it will 

 he an easy matter. 



After the pressure is applied once thor- 

 oughly, turn the water and wax off; doub- 

 le the cheese over, and again squeeze it. 

 By actual weight, 15 oz. was obtained the 

 first time from four pounds of old comb, 

 dirt, etc.. and five ounces the the second. 

 A third pressing does not pay. 



There are a great many inquiries as to 

 which is most convenient, rapid, and thor- 

 ough —pressure under hot water, pressure 



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in steam, or pressure on wax that has been 

 heated in another vessel. With hot wa- 

 ter one can get the same amount of wax 

 as w'th steam, other things being equal; 

 hut it takes longer, and is more compli- 

 cated. It has been suggested that the 

 hot water will do better work than steam 

 because of the fact that, since wax floats 

 on water, the minute that a particle of 

 wax is presse<l out from the cheese-cloth 

 it will rise to the surface out of the way 

 — acting on the jjrincipal of "taking in 

 the slack." Those who suggested this, 

 however, had not tried both plans, and 

 admitted that the idea was simply a theo- 

 ry. If they would try they would find, 



as we have done, that the wax will drop 

 down from the slumgum when steam is 

 used, just as readily as it will float up in 

 the hot water. 



We have not had success with the third 

 method, although some may have had. 

 It is very difiicult to keep the wax from 

 hurning when heated in another place 

 unless healed in hot water. If this is 

 done, part of the wax will melt out and 

 come to the surface, just enough of it to 

 cause trouble, and yet too much to throw 

 away entirely. After burning one's fin- 

 gers in getting the wax transferred from 

 the heating pan to the press, a great deal 

 of heat will be lost; and when the wax 

 comes in contact with the cold press it is 

 so chilled that not all of it can come out; 

 and what does come, often sticks to the 

 cheese-cloth, and refuses to run. 



Some one may say that continued press- 

 ing will lieat the press sufficiently to keep 

 from chilling. This is true in part; but 

 some time must elapse before the next 

 pressing, and this enables the press to be- 



come almost completely cold. So we 

 confine our experiments now to steam or 

 hot water; and, although we much prefer 

 steam, we do not advocate its use in our 

 hoTne-made press, because of the difficulty 

 most bee keepers would have in get- 

 ting it. 



And now comes the question of the 

 method of applying the pressure; viz., 

 whether to use a lever or a screw. Actual 

 figures show that a boy can exert more 

 force with such a screw as is used on our 

 German extractor than a man could with 

 a four-inch twelve-foot oak lever. So a 

 lever for a large press is out of the ques- 

 tion; but for this home-made press, where 

 smaller amounts of refuse are worked 

 with, it is another matter. We will dis- 

 cuss both the lever and tlie screw, and 

 let the reader try l)oth if he desires. 



The lever is much quicker to operate, 

 and does on the average, as good work, 

 because it has the power to press the 

 small amount of old comb or slumgum 

 down to a thin layer. But the screw will 

 do the same work with very little effort, 

 only it takes a little longer; also, the lev- 

 er must have a very strong support, such 

 as a good stout post and floor, and makes 

 one man work very hard to operate it. 

 Very likely some, after trying both, would 

 prefer the lever and some the screw. The 

 engraving shows clearly how the lever is 

 operated. The screw is an ordinary car- 

 penter's beuch-vice screw, which can be 



