46 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
The top was formed of comb bars (cd), between each 
of which stood plates of glass {gj g) ; two large screws 
(.y, s) raised each comb bar when the comb was to 
be examined. He is not clear in his explanation, 
but probably the glass plates moved in grooves, and 
were only^allowed to descend a certain distance into 
the hive body. 
The main defect in Huber’s hive, the inevitable 
destruction of bee-life in closing it after examination, 
remained for a considerable period unremedied, until 
Dr. Dzierzon, of Carlsmarkt, invented in 1838, and 
made public in 1845, frames to hang within a box, or 
hive body, which was manipulated from its side, made 
to open like a door. In 1851, Langstroth, quite inde- 
pendently of Dzierzon, introduced very similar frames 
(Fig. ii), which he, unlike Dzierzon, manipulated from 
above, making his roof movable, and thus securing 
far greater facility of handling, and giving possi- 
bilities of management of which Dzierzon’s hive was 
incapable. Although second in order of time, the 
superiority of his method has commanded for Lang- 
stroth first place in connection with this matter. 
The frames are hung about ^in. from each other 
with the top bar resting on the rabbet, so that the 
combs stand in their natural relative positions. The 
employment of slips, triangular in cross-section, at 
the sides {s, s), and under the top bar, was to 
secure straight combs ; but more modern contrivances 
have made this device needless. 
The seed idea of the movable frame — the most 
pregnant invention ever made in practical apiculture — 
existed in the leaf of Huber’s book-hive, which took 
