202 ORIGIN OF MOVABLE-FRAMES. 



which the bees would store their tempting sweets in the most 

 beautiful and marketable form. Yet bee culture still bcre the 

 stigma of a business of " luck and chance," or working in the 

 dark, and all attempts at improvement were failures, as there 

 were no facilities for examining the interior of the hive to learn 

 ihe cause of or apply a remedy for any defect that might there 

 exist. But "necessity is the mother of invention." This dark- 

 ness was first gradually dispelled, in Europe, by the invention of 

 a movable-comb hive, called the "Leaf Hive," by Francis Huber, 

 of Geneva, as early as 1795. 



It had long been known, that bees would start and build their 

 combs with considerable regularity from strips placed across the 

 top of the hive, by which the combs oould be lifted out by 

 cutting loose their side attachments from the hive. These " bars " 

 led to "bar frames," which are most briefly described in Mr. 

 , Langstroth's Patent, referred to in note on 

 page 140, in which he shows that he is the 

 inventor of the shallow chamber and some 

 other features connected therewith, which 

 will be understood by the descriptions 

 ""9. Taylor-. Frame. which he gives of previous inventions, 



which we abbreviate as follows : The Huber frame consisted of 

 sections, the top and side bars fitting close together, with no 

 honey receptacles above, but the necessity of cutting the side 

 attachments of the comb was obviated. 



W. Augustus Munn, Esq., invented the "bar and frame hive," 

 and published a description of it in London, in 1844. In 1851 

 he published a second edition of his pampluet, in which, describ 

 big liia "improved hive," he says he has "very materially 



