284 MANUAL OP THE APIART. 



loving editor of the early volumes of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, himself of Grerman origin, say : " When Mr. Langstroth 

 took up this subject, he well knew what Huber had done, and 

 saw wherein he had failed — failing, possibly, only because he 

 aimed at nothing more than constructing an observing hive, 

 suitable for his purposes. Mr. Langstroth's object was other 

 and higlier. He aimed at making frames movable, inter- 

 changeable, and praciicaZZy serviceable in bee culture." And 

 how true what follows : "Nobody before Mr. Langstroth ever 

 succeeded in devising a mode of making and using a movable 

 frame that was of any practical value in bee culture." No 

 man in the world, beside Mr. Langstroth, was so conversant 

 with this" whole subject as was Mr. Wagner. His extensive 

 library and thorough knowledge made him a competent judge. 

 Now that the invention is public property, men will cease to 

 fklsify and even perjure themselves, to rob an old man, whose 

 words, writings, and whole life, shine with untarnished 

 ingenuousness. And very soon all will unite with the great 

 majority of intelligent American apiarists of to-day, in ren- 

 dering to this benefactor of our art, the credit ; though he 

 has been hopelessly deprived of the pecuniary benefits of his 

 great invention. 



Mr. Langstroth, though he knew of no previous invention 

 of frames contained in a case, when he made his invention, 

 in 1851, does not profess to have been the first to have 

 invented them. Every page of his book shows his transparent 

 honesty, and desire to give all due credit to other writers and 

 inventors. He does claim, and very justly, to have invented 

 the first practical frame hive, the one described in his patent, 

 applied for in January, 1851, and in all three editions of his 

 book. 



While the name of the late Baron Von Berlepsch will 

 always stand in the front rank of apiarists, he never gave the 

 world any description of a movable frame hive, until Mr. 

 Langstroth had applied for a patent, and not until the Lang- 

 stroth hive was largely in use. 



It has been claimed that Mr. Andrew Harbison invented 

 and used in his father's apiaiy, previous to 1851, the Lang- 

 stroth hive. In the Dollar Newspaper for January 21, 1857, 

 a brother, Mr. W. C. Harbison, who also lived with his father 



