v^y ■ "■^^rr'S.'^ T^v -' 



126 



ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEtPERS' ASSOCIATION 



year's work I uncapped nine frames 

 per minute, taking them from one 

 super and returning them to another, 

 and did not work unreasonably fast, 

 either. 



The objection which is oftenest raised 

 is that Hoffman frames can not be 

 used. 



Of course it would be desirable to 

 have a machine which would work with 

 any and all frames, if that were possi- 

 ble without too many drawbacks in 

 other ways, but as a general thing the 

 more complicated a machine is made 

 the more impractical and troublesome 

 it becomes; and I have tried to avoid 

 all unnecessary complications, and pro- 

 duce a simple, practical, machine for 

 the use of the extracted-honey produc- 

 er, and I believe there is enough range 

 of adjustment and variation to make it 

 a practical success. 



As an illustration of the varied re- 

 quirements, if a machine were made to 

 fill the wants of all producers, one man 

 wants the simplest and lightest ma- 

 chine possible to produce, and has trou- 

 ble with his combs not being bulged 

 enough; while another strongly favors 

 the addition of a quick adjustment de- 

 vice for quickly throwing the knives 

 out to a greater width when an extra 

 thick comb is to be uncapped. 



While it would not be practicable to 

 use the regular Hoffman frame, yet 

 with a chisel the end-bar projections 

 may be cut off, thus saving the combs 

 already built, and producing a frame 

 almost as good as the regular plain 

 frame; and by using the staples in the 

 top-bars the self-spacing feature is re- 

 tained, besides eliminating the old trou- 

 ble of propolization at the points of 

 contact between end-bars. 



The tendency of the times is toward 

 specialization, and the uncapping ma- 

 chine used in connection with the uni- 

 form equipment which the specialist 

 must have, would come in play, not 

 only as a time and labor saver, but 

 would help solve the problem of secur- 

 ing competent help. 



One decided advantage which the 

 machine has over the hand -knife is the 

 fact that in order to do good and rapid 

 work with the hand-knife it is neces- 

 sary that the operator be a man rather 

 above the average in capacity and In- 

 telligence, besides having a good deal 

 of previous practice in order to work 



up the requisite speed and* skill; while- 

 with the machine any common laborer 

 can learn in a few minutes to push the 

 frames through, and do just as good 

 work, and nearly as much of it, as the 

 man having previous practice; or, to 

 put it in another way, the doUar-and- 

 a-half man picked up on the street will 

 take the machine and do more work 

 than the high-priced, skilled hand- 

 uncapper who is sometimes very hard 

 to get. 



For the bee-keeper with only a few 

 colonies, or with a mixed assortment of 

 frames, a machine of this kind would 

 be of little value, unless the old frames 

 were remodeled or replaced with new; 

 but in many cases the saving in time 

 and labor would in a few years over- 

 balance this expense and trouble, es- 

 pecially as there would be nothing 

 about this special preparation that 

 would in any way hinder or complicate 

 the other work, the tendency being in 

 the line of simplification; a fair illus- 

 tration of this being the case of the 

 farmer, who, a few years ago, ha' one 

 crop on the hill-top, another on the 

 hillside, and probably pastured the 

 rich creek bottom land, with no regu- 

 larity as to size or shape or fields, or 

 position of fences; but as he adopted 

 time and labor saving machinery, found 

 himself forced to straighten fences and 

 creeks, drain the bottom lands and 

 clear up the odd corners, and then 

 found that he could do all his work to 

 so much better advantage that the 

 extra expense and work was *a ex- 

 tremely good investment. 



While the machine, in its present 

 form, does excellent work, it is, in a 

 measure, still in the experimental 

 stage, and it may be advisable to make 

 some provision for handling the Hoff- 

 man frame, or cutting below the sur- 

 face of the frame, although I am very 

 muctti in favor of the present, light, 

 strong, simple construction, and I 

 do think it will be hard to improve 

 upon either the stationary triangular 

 knives, or the method of pushing the 

 frames in a horizontal direction be- 

 tween the stationary sets of knives. 



To sum up, the machine as it stands, i 

 I believe, possesses the following de- ' 

 sirable features: 



Simplicity of construction and op- s 



eration. ', 



Light weight and compact design, ; 



