. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. March 1, 1880.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 227 cause of two serious drawbacks, at least, to the use- fulness of the foundation. It wovdd almost appear as though some doubt existed as to whether, if circular concavities were impressed upon the wax-sheet, the rhomboids would make their appearance, but in natural comb the rhomboids do make their appearance from simple dimples by the reciprocal crowding of the architecture of the wax-workers. If a layer of india-rubber balls be squeezed together, they become hexagonal ; and if now two layers be
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. March 1, 1880.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 227 cause of two serious drawbacks, at least, to the use- fulness of the foundation. It wovdd almost appear as though some doubt existed as to whether, if circular concavities were impressed upon the wax-sheet, the rhomboids would make their appearance, but in natural comb the rhomboids do make their appearance from simple dimples by the reciprocal crowding of the architecture of the wax-workers. If a layer of india-rubber balls be squeezed together, they become hexagonal ; and if now two layers be pressed one upon the other, they will produce the rhom- boids, giving us from the circle the precise form and exact angles of honeycomb. Noticing this, I made plaster easts from laj7ers of shot, painting- over them while wet with hot wax. The sheets thus made were the foundation of all the combs in my supers in former years. Straighter combs than those produced from these sheets it would be im- possible to obtain. Three frame supers, 18 in. deep in all, allowed the newspaper to be read if held behind any of the interspaces ; but I could only get one side of these sheets of nice surface, and the bees did not so freely work upon the other, where sometimes misshapen cells were made. Nevertheless, these sheets were always thinned down, while American foundation is often left thick and coarse. The reason of this is twofold, first, the pressure to which the wax is subjected makes it hard and dense, and the bees cannot so freely nibble it away. Natural comb, rather than consisting of dense compacted wax, is a weaving of shreds which are drawn out, and tempered into cohesion, as the examination of a piece of comb by the microscope will show at once, and which may be practically proved by putting, amidst a swarm, a dark and tough comb on each side of a half-finished one. The latter, as it now progresses, instead of being white and srjotless, will be of a light chocolate brown from the i
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