American Foundation. 227 



is pressed between metal plates so accurately formed that the 

 wax receives rhomboidal impressions which are a/ac simile of 

 the basal wail or partition between the opposite cells of natural 

 comb. The thickness of this sheet is no objection, as it is 

 found that the bees almost always thin it down t o the natural 

 thickness, and use the shavings to form the walls. 



AMERICAN FOUNDATION. 



Mr. Wagner secured a patent on foundation in 1861, but as 

 the article was already in use in Germany, the patent was, as 

 we understand, of no legal value, and certainly, as it did 

 nothing to bring this desirable article into use, it had no virtual 

 value. Mr. Wagner was also the first to suggest the idea of 

 rollers. In Langstroth's work, edition of 1859, p. 373, occurs 

 the following, in reference to printing or stamping combs: 

 ' ' Mr. Wagner suggests forming these outlines with a simple 

 instrument somewhat like a wheel cake cutter. When a large 

 number are to be made, a machine might easily be constructeted 

 which would stamp them with great rapidity. In 1866, the 

 King Brothers, of New York, in accordance with the above 

 suggestion, made the first machine with rollers, the product of 

 which they tried to get patented but failed. These stamped 

 rollers were less than two inches long. This machine was use- 

 less, and failed to bring foundation into general use. 



In 1874, Mr. Frederick Weiss, a poor German, invented 

 the machine which brought the foundation into general use. 

 His machine had lengthened rolltrs — they being six inches 

 long — and shallow grooves between the pyramidal projections, 

 so that there was a very shallow cell raised from the basal im- 

 pression as left by the German plates. This was the machine 

 on which was made the beautiful and practical foundation sent 

 out by "John Long," in 1874 and 1875, and which proved 

 to the American apiarists that foundation machines, and foun- 

 dation, were to be a success. I used some of this early foun- 

 dation, and have been no more successful with that made by 

 the machines of to-day. To Frederick Weiss, then, are Ameri- 

 cans and the world indebted for this invaluable aid to the 

 apiarist. 



In 1876, Mr. A. I. Root commenced in his energetic, enthu- 

 siastic way, and soon brought the roller machine and foundation 

 into general use. These machines, though a great aid to api- 



