. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Insect Study 451. Honey-comb Teacher's Story : HE structure of honey-comb has been for ages admired by mathematicians, who have meas- ured the angles of the cells and demonstrated the accurate manner in which the rhomb- shaped cell changes at its base to a three faced pyramid; and proven that, considering the material of construction, honey-comb exem- plifies the strongest and most economic struc- ture possible for the storing of liquid contents. While recent instruments of greater pr
. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Insect Study 451. Honey-comb Teacher's Story : HE structure of honey-comb has been for ages admired by mathematicians, who have meas- ured the angles of the cells and demonstrated the accurate manner in which the rhomb- shaped cell changes at its base to a three faced pyramid; and proven that, considering the material of construction, honey-comb exem- plifies the strongest and most economic struc- ture possible for the storing of liquid contents. While recent instruments of greater precision in measuring angles, show less perfection in honey-comb than the ancients believed, yet the fact still stands that the general plan of it is mathematically excellent. Some have tried to detract from bee skill, by stating that the six-sided cell is simply the result of crowding cells together. Perhaps this was the remote origin of the hexagonal cell; but if we watch a bee build her comb, we find that she begins with a base laid out in triangular pyramids, on either side of which she builds out six-sided cells. A cell just begun, is as distinctly six-sided as when completed. The shape of the cell of a honey-comb is six-sided in cross section. The bottom is a three-sided pyramid and its sides help form pyramids at the bottom of the cells opposite, thus economizing every particle of space. In the hive, the cells lie horizontal usually, although sometimes the combs are twisted. The honey is retained in the cell by a cap of wax which is made in a very cunning fashion; it consists of a cir- cular disc at the mid- dle supported from the six angles of the cell by six tiny girders. The comb is made fast to the section of the hive by being plas- tered upon it. The foundation comb sold to apiarists is quite thick, so that the edges of the cell may be drawn out and al- most complete the sides of the cell. However, the founda- tion comb is expensive and is ordinarily used by the bee-
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