Talk:L. L. Langstroth

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The text used to say:

"His was the first design to have comb that was enclosed on four sides by a wooden frame that allowed for easy removal and reuse of the comb."

The problem with this statement is that, as mentioned earlier in the text, Huber had already designed a hive with comb "that was enclosed on four sides by a wooden frame that could be easily removed and reused." True, you had to pull the pin on a hinge (an easy thing to do), but you could remove them easily. In fact Huber's hive had most of the advantages claimed by Langstroth for his hive. MANY bee hives previous to Langstroth's design had "comb that was enclosed on four sides by a wooden frame" and, according to their proponents, "allowed for easy removal and reuse of the comb." However, in reality the frames would be propolized to the point they were difficult to remove. What Langstroth did that was revolutionary was to provide a "bee space" around the frame so it was not glued into place by the bees, and, also important, did this in a simple, mechanically and financially practical way. The original senetence, I feel, implied that it was the removable wooden frame that was revolutionary. But it was not the wooden frame that was revolutionary, since many had done this before. It was the bee space surrounding it. Therefore, for clarity, I changed this to:

"His was the first design to have comb that was enclosed on four sides by a wooden frame surrounded by a 'bee space' that allowed for easy removal and reuse of the comb."

Also, an aside, the original book by L.L. Langstroth is still in print as well as the 1992 edition by Dadant & Sons. Very little of Langstroth's original work is in the newest version. A scan of the old Langstroth version is available from Cornell and I added a link to that.

--Michael Bush

• That's a very good clarification.David 02:16, 14 September 2006 (UTC)