BEE CULTURE. 89 
THE HONEY EXTRACTOR AND ITS USE. 
THE INVENTION OF THE EXTRACTOR. 
Following closely after the increased knowledge concern- 
ing the natural history of the Honey Bee came improvements 
in bee hives and modern appliances for obtaining the 
increased production ,of honey. ~Major Von Hruschka, a 
retired Austrian officer, who was then keeping bees in Italy, 
invented the Honey Extractor ; and its great value is every- 
where admitted by all ‘progressive bee-keepers. 
The following is a brief history of the discovery: One day 
when the Major, who was a most observing and critical 
bee-keeper, was in his apiary, his little boy came there to 
him. The boy had a small tin pail tied to a string, which he 
was swinging, boy-like, around and around in a circle, hold- 
ing the end of the string in his hand. The father gave the 
youth a small piece of comb filled with honey, putting it into 
the little pail. The boy, after a while, began to swing the 
pail again as before, with the honey init. A few moments 
after, he became tired of that amusement, and put the pail 
down to talk to his father, who took it up, and, by chance, 
noticed that the honey had left the comb and settled down 
into the pail, leaving the comb perfectly clean that had been 
on the outside of the circle when the boy was swinging it 
around. The Major wondered at the. circumstance, . and, 
turning the comb over, bade the boy swing it again, when, to 
his great astonishment, the other side of the comb also 
became perfectly clean, all the honey being extracted and 
lying at the bottom of the pail. That night Major Von 
Hruschka, after going to bed, commenced to think the cir- 
cumstance over; he thought, and thought, and his thoughts 
troubled him so much that on the morrow he commenced a 
series of experiments which resulted in his giving to the 
