Use of Foundaiion. 



231 



thickest at one end. With the device of Mr. Jones the wax 

 runs to the ends, and to make the middle as thick, the board 

 is lowered in the melted wax below the centre. At Mr. Jones' 

 I saw one man dip the sheets as fast as two men could run them 

 through the machine. Mr. Heddon, who has used nearly all 

 of the roller machines, thinks Given's press can be used more 

 easily and rapidly than any of them. This seems to me hardly 

 possible, yet we must remember that the press puts the founda- 

 tion right into the wired frames. Surely Mr. Jones' accom- 

 plishment with the Dunham Mill leaves little to be desired. 



For cutting foundation, nothing is so admirable as the Car- 

 lin cutter (Fig. 105, a), which is like the wheel glass-cutters 



Fig. 105 



sold in the shops, except that a larger wheel of tin takes the 

 place of the one of hardened steel. Mr. A. I. Root has sug- 

 gested a grooved board (Fig. 105, b) to go with the above, the 

 distance between the grooves being equal to the desired width 

 of the strips of comb foundation to be cut. 



For cutting smaller sheets for the sections the same device 

 may be used. I saw Mr. Jones cut these as fast as a boy 

 would cut circular wads for his shot-gun, by use of a sort of 

 modified cake cutter (Fig. 106). 



USE OF FOUNDATION. 



An empty frame should never be put in the brood-chamber. 

 Even if foundation was one dollar a pound it still would pay 

 richly to use it. It is astonishing to see how rapidly the bees 

 will extend the cells, and how readily the queen will stock 

 them with eggs if of the right size, five cells to the inch. 



