pr- 



1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



165 



Apiarians." Speaking of him, I say : " Very 

 early in my apiarian studies, I constructed a hive 

 on the pi .n of the celebrated Huber; and by 

 verifying some of his most valuable disooveries, 

 became convinced that the prejudices against 

 him were ertirely unfounded." And again — 'The 

 use of the Huber hive had satisfied me that with 

 prober precautions the combs might be removed 

 with mt enraging the bees, and that those insects 

 are capable of being tamed to a surprising de- 

 gree. Without a knowledge of these facts, I 

 should have regarded a hive permitting the re- 

 moval of the combs as quite too dangerous for 

 practical use." 



In the first edition of my work published in 

 1853, I say : '• If Huber had only contrived a 

 plan for suspending his frames, instead of fold- 

 ing thrm together like the leaves of a book, I 

 believe that the cause of apiarian science would 

 have been fifty years in advance of what it is 

 now." 



Mow, if I had known that my hive was not so 

 much better than Huber's as te deserve a patent, 

 and ii I had been base enough to attempt to palm 

 upon the public substantially his invention as my 

 own, can any man of common sense believe.that 

 I would have published to the world just where 

 and how I stole my pretended invention ? And 

 yet this is substantially what I have been charged 

 with doing 



Since my application for a patent, I have as- 

 certained that prior to my inveution other mova- 

 ble frames, be-side those of Huber, were in use 

 in Europe. None of them, as f >r as I can learn 

 after thorough inquiry, are any better than those 

 of Huber. I would refer those who desire in- 

 formation on this point, to the Cows Pratiuue 

 D^ Apiculteur of M. Hamet, published in Paris in 

 1859, which contains a larger variety of cuts and 

 descriptions of hives than can be found, I be- 

 lieve, in any other work. All the modifications 

 of the Huber hive are pronounc 'd by Hamet to 

 be useful only for purposes of observation, and 

 he as-erts that in the districts of France where 

 bee-keeping is most largely pursued, no m'wable 

 frame hives here ever come into general use — 

 and that the removal of the frames from the best 

 of them is often more diflScult thm from the Hu- 

 ber hive. He closes his account of these hives 

 with the significant remark, that "in a mjment 

 of enthusiasm he once supposed that such a hive 

 might be cheaply made, but that he had tried it 

 in vain." 



Now, compare these results in France, with 

 the extensive use, by the best practical bee-keep- 

 ers in this country, of the movable comb princi~ 

 pie, and the inference will be almost irresistible 

 that they have not yet invented a cheap ana prac- 

 tical way of using movable frames. 



In the Bee-keeper's Convention in Cleveland 

 last March, an article was read from a recent 

 English publication, in which all hives v*iih 

 movable frames are declared to have no practical 

 value. Of all the movable frame hives now in 

 use on the Continent of Europe, the Berlepsch 

 hive ss probably the best — (for a description of 

 this hive, see American Bee Journal for January). 

 It was invented subsequently to mine, and uses 

 essential features covered by my patent, without 



which this German hive would have no more 

 practcal utility than those which have so sig- 

 nally failed. 



Allow me to give an extract, in this connec- 

 tion, from a letter received by me last fall from 

 the Baron Evon Linsingtn of Oznaborick, King- 

 dom of Hanover, dated 10th of August, 1860 : 



" I feel convinced that no other apiarian has 

 been able to construct a movable comb bee-hive 

 in such an advantageous way as you have doie. 

 On the 20th of September, the apiarians from 

 all parts of Germany assemble in Hanover to 

 have a grand consultation a^iout the Live and 

 honey bee, and I wish you to send to my address 

 twj of your hives." 



The order came too late to be filled in season 

 for the Convention. Were I to attempt to i?how 

 in what particulars the various patents in this 

 counfry, using movable frames, have appropria- 

 ted to a greater or less extent the essential and 

 patented features of my invention, I should re- 

 quire more space than in the largest liberality 

 you would be willing to give, besides opening a 

 personal controversy in which comparatively few 

 of your readers would feel any interest. This 

 much, however, I wish to say, that in my opin- 

 ion all of them uae some of these features, and 

 that without this use they would be of no more 

 practical value than the European hives. I be- 

 lieve that the courts of law will sustain this opin- 

 ion, and I should long before this have claimed 

 their protection but for my limited pecuniary re- 

 sources, the state of my health, which has caused 

 the loss of more than half of my time for the 

 la^t nine years, and the fact that other p-irties 

 own the greater part of my patent I have never 

 sought for more than my rights, and if any one 

 can show that before my invention there existed 

 any movable frame hive adapted to practical use, 

 or any invention that used the essential and pa- 

 tented features of mine, I will try to be the first 

 to acknowledge that although an original invent- 

 or, I was not the first inventor of such a hive. 



L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, Bailer Co., 0., April 10, 1861. 



*\rr. Baldridge is entirely misiBfoim'^d ia supposing tha 

 there is no patent on the Harbison hive. It was ^titented 

 in 1859. 



We have said, and again repeat, that 

 these patent hive men have plundered the 

 public long enough. If Mr. Langstroth's 

 patent is genuine and susceptible of defense 

 in our courts, it is time that the point was 

 settled ; if it is not, of course the whole 

 family of movable frames must follow suit, 

 and any person can make and use as many 

 as he pleases, and snap his fingers in the 

 face of these harpies. We have for several 

 years heard of the enforcement of the 

 Langstroth patent, but thus far no move is 

 made in that direction. Will it be done, 

 and so put a stop to all this clap-trap ? If 



