20-4 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



which is very thin, only 1-180 of an inch thick. This is pressed 

 between metal plates so accurately formed that the wax re- 

 ceives rhomboidal impressions which are a/ac simile of the 

 basal wall 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 to the natural 

 thickness, and probably 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 constructed 

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

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

 suggestion, invented the first machine with rollers, the pro- 

 duct of which they tried but failed to get patented. These 

 stamped rollers were less than two inches long. This machine 

 was useless, 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 rollers — 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, too, were to be a success. I used some of this early 

 foundation, and have been no more successful with that made 

 by the machines of to-day. To Frederick Wess, then, are 

 Americans and the world indebted for this invaluable aid to 

 the apiarist. Yet, the poor old man has, I fear, received 

 very meager profits from this great invention, while some 



