276 The Honey Extractor, 
CHAPTER XI, 
ExTRACTING AND THE EXTRACTOR. 
The brood chamber is often so filled with honey that 
the queen has no room to lay her eggs, especially if there 
is any neglect to give other room for storing. Honey in 
brood-combs is unsalable, because the combs are dark, and 
the size undesirable. Comb is very valuable, and should 
never be taken from the bees, except when desired to ren- 
der the honey more marketable. Hence, the apiarist finds 
a very efficient auxiliary in the 
HONEY EXTRACTOR. 
No doubt some have expected and claimed too much for 
this machine. It is equally true that some have blundered 
quite as seriously in an opposite direction. For, since Mr. 
Langstroth gave the practical movable frame to the world, 
the apiarist has not been so deeply indebted to any inventor 
as to him who gave us the Mel Extractor, Herr von 
Hruschka, of Germany. 
The principle which makes this machine effective is that 
of centrifugal force, and it was suggested to Major von 
Hruschka by noticing that a piece of comb which was 
twirled by his boy at the end of a string was emptied of 
its honey. Herr von Hruschka’s machine was essentially 
like those now so common, though in lightness and con- 
venience there has been a marked improvement. His 
machine consisted of a wooden tub, with a vertical axle.in 
the center, which revolved in a socket fastened to the 
bottom of the vessel, while from the top of the tub fasten- 
ings extended to the axle, which projected for a distance 
above. The axle was thus held exactly in the center of the 
tub. Attached to the axle was a frame or rack to hold the 
comb, whose outer face rested against a wire cloth. The 
axle with its attached frame, which latter held the uncapped 
comb, was made to revolve by rapidly unwinding a string 
