276 The Honey Extractor. 



CHAPTER XII. 

 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 di'ection. For, since Mr. 

 Langstroth gave the pi-actical 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 isthat 

 of centrifugal force, and it was suggested to Major von 

 Hruschka by noticing that a piece of comb which was 

 twirled by hi^ 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 strino- 



