And very soon all will unite with the great majority of intelligent
American apiarists of to-day, in rendering to this benefactor of
our art, the credit; though he has been hopelessly deprived of the
pecuniary benefits of his great invention.
Mr. Langstroth, though he knew of no previous invention of frames
contained in a case, when he made his invention, in 1851, does not
profess to have been the first to have invented them. Every page of his
book shows his transparent honesty, and desire to give all due credit
to other writers and inventors. He does claim, and very justly, to
have invented the first practical frame hive, the one described in his
patent, applied for in January, 1851, and in all three editions of his
book.
While the name of the late Baron Von Berlepsch will always stand in the
front rank of apiarists, he never gave the world any description of a
movable frame hive, until Mr. Langstroth had applied for a patent, and
not until the Langstroth hive was largely in use.
It has been claimed that Mr. Andrew Harbison invented and used in his
father's apiary, previous to 1851, the Langstroth hive. In the _Dollar
Newspaper_ for January 21, 1857, a brother, Mr. W. C. Harbison, who
also lived with his father at the time the invention is said to have
been made, says: "I will venture the prediction that both Quinby's
hive and mine will ere long be cast aside, to give place to a hive
constructed in such a manner that the apiarian can have access to
every part of the hive at pleasure, without injury to the colony.
In this particular both Mr. Quinby and myself have _singly failed_.
The invention of such a hive was reserved for Mr. Langstroth." It is
significant that J. S. Harbison, another brother, who was also with his
father at the time, in his "Bee Culture," San Francisco, 1861, speaks
of the Langstroth hive, p. 149, but not of that of his brother. It
has also been claimed that W. A. Flanders, Martin Metcalf, and Edward
Townley, each invented this hive prior to Mr! Langstroth's invention.
Yet, each of these gentlemen wrote a book, in which no mention is
made of such an invention. Well might Mr. Langstroth say, "I can well
understand what Job meant when he said, 'O! that my enemy had written
a book.'" It is also stated that Mr. A. F. Moon was a prior inventor
of this hive. Mr. Moon's own testimony, that he not only abandoned his
invention, being unable to secure straight combs, but _even forgot all
about it_, till it was discovered in an old rubbish pile, shows that he
did nothing that would, in court, overthrow Mr. Langstroth's claims, or
that in the least conferred any benefit upon bee-keepers. Mr. Maxwell,
of Mansfield, Ohio, was another who is said to have anticipated Mr.
Langstroth. Yet Mr. Maxwell's own son swears that he helped his father
make all his hives, and that his father never used a movable frame
till after 1851. Solon Robinson thought his brother. Dr. Robinson, of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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