ORIGIN OF MOVABLE-FRAMES. 
120 
which the bees would store their tempting sweets in the most 
beautiful and marketable form. Yet bee culture still bore 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 
the 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 
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 pamphlet, in which, describ- 
ing his “improved hive,” he says he has “very materially 
