§ X. CHESHIRE'S GUIDE-MAKER.
At the Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1875, Mr. Cheshire exhibited and obtained a prize for a wax guide-maker, which is an ingenious contrivance. It consists of a plaster of Paris cast, with impressions taken from the metal plates before referred to ([page 187]). This cast is two inches in width, about the same in thickness, and eleven or twelve inches long. It rests in a shallow zinc or tin trough containing water to keep the plaster damp by capillary attraction. The plaster cast may first be soaked in water; then place against its side the top bar of the frame, reversed so that the centre of the under side lies even with the edge of the embossed cast. The wax (which must be genuine) is melted in an ordinary glue-pot; then with a clean paintbrush it is applied to the top of the plaster cast and exposed part of the bar. The wax immediately hardens on the damp cast and does not adhere, whilst the under side of the bar carries an embossed guide of sufficient depth to be an unfailing means of direction to the swarm in the building of straight combs.
When a large number of frames have to be prepared, this ingenious apparatus is a convenience; but for the ordinary apiarian we should advise procuring a few of the impressed wax sheets, cutting them in strips, and fixing without the mess and trouble which Mr. Cheshire's apparatus involves.