ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEE)PERS' ASSOCIATION 



125 



slight push on the thrust- bar finishes 

 the operation, and the frame is ready 

 to remove; or, to make the description 

 as short as the operation, set the 

 frame in the guides, pus'h it twice, 

 and remove it. 



The machine was designed and built 

 for use with plain frames, but, realiz- 

 ing that there are a great many bee- 

 keepers who insist on having a self- 

 spacing frame, I hit on the scheme of 

 using spacing staples in Lhe sides of 

 the top -bars, so that, by removing the 

 knives wihich come apposite the top- 

 bar, these staples will pass through 

 the opening, and the knives below will 

 uncap the comb just as close down to 

 the frame as when the unspaced 

 frame is used. 



The removal of these knives also al- 

 lows the use of a top-Jbar wider than 

 the end-bars, thus reducing tihe ten- 

 dency of the bees for building bur- 

 combs between the frames at the tops. 

 Any pair of the knives may be re- 

 moved to suit the height of frame 

 used. 



Frames of any lieight up to and 

 including the regular Langstroth may 

 be used, and tlhere are separate ad- 

 justments for difEerent widths of top 

 and bottom bars, and the knife-bars 

 may be adjusted to uncap at any 

 thickness from % inch to 1% inches, 

 according to the requirements of the 

 operator. 



To change the adjustment for differ- 

 ent heights of frame, it is only neces- 

 sary to loosen one screw, bring th6 

 top gyide to the required position, and 

 tighten t'he screw again. 



The guides are strong and sure, and, 

 touching the frame witlh their edges 

 only, will easily cut through any bur- 

 combs on accumulations of propolis. 



I made several of the machines, and 

 put them in the hands of producers 

 for trial this season, and the results of 

 tlhese trials, so far as I have been able 

 to learn, can well ibe summed up In 

 the words of Mr. Hutchinson, on page 

 328, of the November "Review," 

 where he says: 



"It is simplicity itself, does not clog 

 up, and slices off the cappings as slick 

 and smooth as a mowing machine clios 

 down a field of timothy, and if all combs 

 were built with plain %-inch end bars, 

 were as straight and smooth as a board, 

 were slightly bulged on each side so that 

 all the capped surface projected about V4, 

 inch beyond the edges of the end bars, 

 but little more could be asked for in the 

 way of an uncapping machine." 



Then he states that but few of his 



own combs will fill these requirements 

 and leaves one to infer that he thinks 

 that they can not be filled; and I will 

 admit that where no special effort has 

 been made to provide straight combs, 

 or where the previous uncapping has 

 been hurriedly or carelessly done by 

 hand with some spots cut way below 

 the surface of the frames, or where 

 the frames are unevenly spaced in 

 the supers, these requirements will not 

 be filled; but with a little effort and 

 attention given to getting them once 

 properly built out, and then properly 

 spaced in the hive, this trouble would 

 disappear, as the knives of the ma- 

 chine can not cut below a certain limit, 

 and all combs, after being once un- 

 capped, and leveled up by the machine, 

 would be built out enough at each sub- 

 sequent filling and sealing to insure a 

 clean job of uncapping. 



You know we have been reading a 

 good deal for some years past about 

 spacing the combs wide in supers to 

 secure thick, bulged combs, and then 

 cutting close down to the frame in un- 

 capping, thus securing more wax, more 

 rapid work, and requiring the handling 

 of fewer frames; and that is just the 

 practice I had in mind while developing 

 the machine, and I bave been under the 

 impression that among extracted honey 

 producers there was a growing tend- 

 ency toward the adoption of plaia 

 frames and wide spacing. 



The success or failure of this ma- 

 chine in Its present form, however, will 

 depend almost entirely on whether or 

 not combs can be produced under prac- 

 tical conditions, with their surfaces 

 uniformly bulged enough for the knives 

 to catch. 



One other objection raised by Mr. 

 Hutchinson is that, after pushing the 

 frame nearly through the machine, one 

 must "step around to the other end 

 and pull out the comb;" but the thrust- 

 bar at the top of the machine is in- 

 tended for pushing the comb the last 

 two or three inches when it may be 

 removed without any "pulling," and 

 the only "stepping around" required is 

 a slight forward and backward move- 

 ment similar to that of a carpenter 

 planing the edge of a board, and I be- 

 lieve I would rather do the work with 

 this slight movement than the same 

 amount of work confined to one posi- 

 tion; and the time consumed in this 

 movement is so slight that in this 



