174 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



galvanized iron — was better than anything else we could have, 

 and that is what we are now furnishing. It consists of a 

 piece of hard oak, 4 by 3 inches thick; on the inner side 

 of it is a cast-iron brace that is two inches at the widest 

 part, through which the screw passes, and an inch at the 

 farthest point. This brace is made just like ordinary braces 

 — with a rib running through the center to stiffen it. The 

 cast-iron top was a circular piece of cast-iron about three- 

 eights of an inch thick, with ribs like the spokes of a wheel, 

 the ribs being thicker towards the center. 



Mr. Meredith — I would like to say a word, not speaking 

 of pressure as a defect, but from experience possibly in put- 

 ting on too much power when I have had to let it stand. 

 The bottom or the portion upon which the cage sets being 

 a light piece of metal with rivets around, I have drawn two 

 or three rivets right straight through, and I found that the 

 iron around there has turned something like the fans of a 

 windmill, instead of standing up. I was wondering if that 

 was a common complaint, or just an accident with my 

 machine. 



Mr. Root — That is not a common complaint, but in some 

 few instances it has happened. There is one thing about the 

 wax-press I feel chagrined over — that we couldn't build it 

 in the first place so that it would resist these strains. But 

 you can see what the problem was to us, it was making one 

 strain against another, and that strain sufficient to stand all 

 kinds of pressure. When we say the pressure must be right, 

 it may be three or four tons, or four or five tons, they don't 

 quite understand what we mean. In reference to the remark 

 made by Mr. Reynolds, stating that my brother said the 

 pressure would be three or four tons, he probably gave that 

 statement from first experiments then made. /Kt that time 

 we thought great pressure was necessary, but we learned 

 afterwards pressure was not needed, but a light pressure con- 

 tinued, so that the wax could get away. 



Mr. Reynolds — Don't you think it should be sent broad- 

 cast to the people that that was a mistake? 



Mr. Root — This is broadcast here. 



Mr. Reynolds — ^^Shouldn't it be put in Gleanings? 



Mr. Root — I think I have published it two or three 



times. 



EXHIBITS AND PRIZES AT CONVENTIONS. 



Mr. Swift — I don't want to shut off the wax-press dis- 

 cussion, but a matter has occurred to me that is entirely 

 foreign. I have attended, now, I think, three or four of 

 these conventions — I am not sure which — and this is the 

 only convention I have ever attended where there is nothing 

 in evidence of the object of the convention. You take the 

 Fat Stock Show, and when they have their meeting they 

 have their stock to see and judge; you take the meeting of 

 the Horticultural Society, and the different associations 

 throughout the United States and elsewhere, and they all 

 have exhibitions of their products — something to judge by. 

 The Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Association have 



