i6o Advanced Bee Culture. 



old combs are melted in two common wash-boilers. The one thing- that 

 must be built with the greatest care is the press. He first tried presses 

 sent out by manufacturers, only to meet with disappointment. They 

 couldn't "stand the pressure." The outside jacket is 15 inches in diam- 

 eter, 18 inches deep, and made of heavy, galvanized iron. Around the 

 top, inside of the can, is bolted, very solidly, an iron hoop an inch and 

 a half wide, and 34 inch thick. Bolted to opposite sides of the can, at 

 its upper edge, the bolts passing through the iron hoop just mentioned, 

 are two strips of iron, ^ inch thick, about 4 inches long, having one 

 end turned outwards and formed into a hook that will receive a bolt 

 y^ inch in diameter. The cross-piece, above the can, through which 

 passes the screw, is about 4 inches wide, and 2^ inches thick, of hard 

 wood, and reinforced by a piece of wagon tire iron ^ inch thick and 

 as wide as the piece of wood. Mr. ]\Ianley says that only the man who 

 has been through the mill can realize the necessity for making every- 

 thing very strong. The pressure that can be exerted with a screw is 

 something tremendous. In each end of the cross-piece is a ^ bolt with 

 a heavy nut on the lower end. When the cross-piece is put in place 

 and swung around in the right direction, these bolts slip into the hooks 

 already mentioned, the nuts catching below the hooks and holding down 

 the cross-piece. 



The next most important feature of the press is what Mr. ]\Ianley 

 calls a "spider," which is put in an inch or two from the bottom of the 

 can. The name is very appropriate, as it certainly resembles a huge 

 spider with its legs fastened to the sides of the can. It is made of 

 pieces of iron about 3-16 thick and one inch wide, bolted together at 

 the center, and the ends bolted to an iron hoop that just fits inside the 

 can and is bolted to its sides. This iron hoop is of the same size and 

 weight as the one at the top of the can. Don't think that it will answer 

 to rivet these hoops to the can. It won't. The\' will pull ofi^. Use 

 bolts, with washers on the outside, and have the washers thoroughly 

 fastened to the can with solder. Even when all this care has been 

 taken, Mr. Manle>' says that the screw-power must be used \\ith dis- 

 cretion. 



Fastened to the bottom of the screw is a plunger, or follower, made 

 of heavy cast iron, and reinforced on the lower side with two layers of 

 bars of wood; these layers crossing each other at right angles, .\side 

 from the added strength, there is an advantage in having two lasers 

 of bars crossing each other. If the slum gum in its covering of burlap 

 is forced up between the bars of the lower tier, there are still openings 

 in the upper tier through which the wax can escape. 



Perhaps half an inch less in diameter than the can, is an inner 

 basket of perforated iron. Inside of this basket is used a sack of burlap 



