to a quarter at the toe. It is to be particularly attended to in the construction, that there be as few joinings as possible, and these are to be fastened with rivets instead of solder.[1] We have made what we think an improvement on this instrument,—not on the principle, but on the shape, and the mode of using it; and have given a figure of it in Pl. XIII. fig. 2. a is the body of the instrument, having a bottom at b, perforated with small holes, through which the smoke of burning rags, or of tinder, or of dried cow-dung, made damp before being used, placed inside at a, will be blown out at the point c; d is the lid which slips on the body, after the rags are kindled within, having a tube e treble the diameter of the opening at c. The rim of the lid is perforated with holes ½ inch in diameter, corresponding to the same number of holes in the body of the instrument, the use of which is to admit the air by bringing the holes over each other, and thus to prevent the fire from being extinguished, when the operator occasionally lays it out of his hand. When about to resume it, a half-turn of the lid, by breaking the correspondence of the holes, will again exclude the air; f is a ring by which the instrument is held; if an assistant is at hand, he may insert the nozzle of a pair of hand-bellows into the mouth of the tube e, and thus add to its efficiency. The instrument is made of tin, having all the joinings rivetted instead of being soldered. It is on a scale of six or seven times the dimensions of the figure.
- ↑ Howatson on Bees, page 62.
