i88 FITTINGS AND APPARATUS. [Ch. iv. 



beautiful transparency of that part of it, contrasted with 

 the opaqueness of the part not yet laboured upon. 



This invention renders us independent ol guide-comb, 

 which is not always obtainable. It comes to us from 

 Germany, where it has attained many years of success. 

 Atthe International Exhibition of 1862 we purchased the 

 metal plates or castings, so as to manufacture the im- 

 pressed sheets with which we are now able to supply our 

 customers; and after the careful trials we have made 

 we have great confidence in recommending them. As 

 will be seen belovv, however, we no longer advise inser- 

 tion of entire sheets. 



In the season of 1863 we furnished a Woodbury glass 

 super with the wax sheets fixed to the bars in the Avay 

 hereafter to be explained, and it was truly astonishing to 

 mark the rapidity with which these sheets of wax were 

 converted into comb. Receptacles were quickly made 

 ready for the storing of honey, and the new combs soon 

 became beautifully white ; for, although the artificial wax 

 has a yellow tinge, yet, after being worked at and made 

 thinner, it is as good in colour as ordinary combs. 



If whole sheets are used — or, in the case of supers, 

 half ones — perhaps the simplest plan for fastening them 

 is to fix a strip of wood with brads to the under side of 

 the top frame or bar ; place the wax sheet against this, 

 then wedge another strip close to it, and thus hold the wax 

 sheet firmly in the centre of the frame, taking care also 

 to make the second strip of wood fast with brads. This 



