THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY. 
469 
might secrete it (page 171, Vol. I.) ; but comb costs 
much time and labour during its modelling, and all 
this the extractor practically saves, while it gives the 
readiest possible method of clearing the combs 
during a rapid honey flow. 
Hruschka’s machine — which was, in fact, an adapta- 
tion of the then old centrifugal drying machine, and 
was suggested to his mind by a boy’s trick in swinging 
round a piece of comb tied to a string — consisted of 
a wooden tub, within which revolved a cage comparable 
to a street lamp, but open at top, and bounded by 
stiff wire cloth. After the sealing had been shaved off 
(uncapping), the combs were placed against the wires, 
as at co^ A, Fig. 115, and a few rapid rotations of 
the cage, produced by unwinding a string from the 
axle, as in spinning a top, sent the honey from the 
cells on the side of the combs remote from the centre 
of rotation, the operation being completed by the 
reversal of the sides. The extractors of to-day do 
not usually differ, in any marked particular, from the 
prototype ; but some are constructed in such ignorance 
of first principles that these need our attention, in 
order that we may judge of the efficiency of any 
machine before investing in it, while the formulae 
given may serve those making modifications in present 
styles of construction. 
It is desirable not to make the tinned iron can 
(B, Fig. 1 15), now used, larger than necessary, yet it 
must permit of the rotation of the cage within ; and 
this has often led to an undue reduction of the latter, 
by which the combs have been brought too near to 
the spindle. Let the curves gih, kml (A, Fig. 114), 
