Part 119

The cells which are used for the storage of honey generally slant upward slightly to help keep the honey from running out. Queen-cells are made only when a new queen is to be reared.

Can a Bee Sting?

It is true that bees cannot bite and kick like horses, nor can they hook like cattle; but most people, after having had an experience with bee-stings for the first time, are inclined to think they would rather be bitten, kicked, and hooked, all together, than risk a repetition of that keen and exquisite anguish which one feels as he receives the full contents of the poison-bag.

What Happens When a Bee Stings?

After the bee has penetrated the flesh on your hand, and worked the sting so deeply into the flesh as to be satisfied, it begins to find that it is a prisoner, and to consider means of escape. It usually gets smashed at about this stage of proceedings, unless it succeeds in tearing the sting--poison-bag and all--from the body; however, if allowed to do the work quietly it seldom does this, knowing that such a proceeding seriously maims it for life, if it does not kill it. After pulling at the sting to see that it will not come out, it seems to consider the matter a little, and then commences to walk around it, in a circle, just as if it were a screw it was going to turn out of a board. If you will be patient and let it alone, it will get it out by this very process, and fly off unharmed. I need not tell you that it takes some heroism to submit patiently to all this maneuvering. The temptation is almost ungovernable, while experiencing the intense pain, to say, while you give it a clip, “There, you little beggar, take that, and learn better manners in future.”

Well, how does every bee know that it can extricate its sting by walking around it? Some would say it is instinct. Well, I guess it is; but it seems to me, after all, that it “sort o’ remembers” how its ancestors have behaved in similar predicaments for ages and ages past.

Odor of the Bee-sting Poison.

After one bee has stung you, if you remain where you were stung, the smell of the poison, or something else, will be pretty sure to get more stings for you, unless you are very careful. It has been suggested that this is owing to the smell of the poison, and that the use of smoke will neutralize this scent. This probably is so.

What Should I Do If I Am Stung by a Bee?

The blade of a knife, if one is handy, may be slid under the poison-bag, and the sting lifted out, without pressing a particle more of the poison into the wound. When a knife-blade is not handy, push the sting out with the thumb or finger nail in much the same way. It is quite desirable that the sting should be taken out as quickly as possible, for if the barbs once get a hold in the flesh, the muscular contractions will rapidly work the sting deeper and deeper. Sometimes the sting separates, and a part of it (one of the splinters, so to speak) is left in the wound; it has been suggested that we should be very careful to remove every one of these tiny points; but after trying many times to see what the effect would be, I have concluded that they do but little harm, and that the main thing is, to remove the part containing the poison-bag before it has emptied itself completely into the wound.

Why Are Some Races White, and Others Black, Yellow and Brown?

What you eat determines your color, according to Bergfield, a German investigator. Not necessarily that you yourself could effect any change in color, but your ancestors for thousands of years have unconsciously been influenced by the food they have eaten and the drinks they have drunk.

For instance, the original men were black, says Bergfield. Their chief diet was of vegetables and fruits, he explains, and these same food contains manganates that are not unlike iron. Dark browns and blacks result from this combination. It is a scientific fact that negroes who drink milk and eat meat are never as dark as those who eat vegetables.

Again, Mongols are yellow because they have descended from races that were fruit-eating, and who, making their way into the deepest nooks and widest plains of Asia, developed into shepherds and lived largely on milk. Of course it is now known that milk contains a certain percentage of chlorine, and has a decidedly bleaching effect. In the case of Caucasians, they are said to have become white by adding salt to their foods, which common salt is a strong chloride, and powerful in bleaching the skin.

The Story in a Piece of Leather

Pictures by courtesy of Endicott, Johnson & Co.

Where Does Leather Come From?

Leather is made by treating the hides of various animals such as the calf, cow and horse. These are the principal animals from which we obtain hides for making leather to make shoes. Before the hides are fit for making shoes, they must be taken to a tannery where they are prepared and tanned.

In viewing a tannery, we enter first the enormous hide house. It is long, damp and dark. Here the hides are collected from all over the world and stored, awaiting their turn for tanning. We follow a small car of these hides into the beamhouse. We see the hides loaded into a vat. They are soaked, resoaked, softened and split into sides. This operation, while simple, holds your attention longer perhaps than any of the others. Several hides after being softened are thrown over a sort of saw-horse, the lot number is stamped on the hide in such a manner that it appears on each side after being split. With an unusually long bladed knife the workman quickly cuts down through the center and the hides which are now called sides, fall to the floor. They are next hooked together and pass on through vat after vat of lime solution which loosens the hair and superfluous flesh. At the end of this long chain of vats, we see the sides awaiting their turn at the first unhairing machine, where all the hair is removed and then to the fleshing machine, where the flesh is taken off and the sides are again loaded in a car and pass on to the tanyard.

THE TAN YARD

We resume our travels, following a car of sides from the beamhouse to the sole leather tanyard. There are about 40 operations in the tanning of sole leather, requiring about 100 days to produce first quality leather. In the tanyard, we see more than 500 vats, each holding 300 sides, weighing about 23 pounds apiece. Each vat contains about 3000 gallons of liquor at an approximate cost of $100 a vat. Here we see the sides slipped over sticks and placed in vats six feet deep, where they receive the tanning, the real tanning process which preserves the fibers giving the leather its life and long wearing qualities.

From the tanyard we go to the big wringers where the liquor is wrung out, the hides are milled, dried and loaded on cars for the drying loft, where they are allowed to dry or season preparatory to rolling. This long building is sectioned off every 50 feet into chambers, where the hides are hung in the same manner as in the vats. The temperature of each room is changed from the outside temperature to a heat of 115 degrees, at which temperature the hides are dried and are ready for rolling.]

In the upper leather tannery we see the various operations preparatory to the actual operation of tanning the hide, about the same as in the sole leather tannery, with this difference: Upper leather in this tannery is generally chrome tanned, a process requiring 30 days and instead of vats sunken in the ground we see huge rolling drums revolving at a rapid rate. This process is the most up-to-date method and absolutely insures the wearing qualities of the leather. This leather is very tough, yet is just as soft and pliable as glove leather and as comfortable to the feet. It does not harden with age, nor does it stiffen after being wet.]

One of the most interesting sight while going through the tanneries is the process of disposing of waste materials, such as hair, fleshings and the sediments from the lime and sulphur vats.

The hair is separated into white, brown and black colors, each color taking its turn through the huge mill or gin where the hair is dried and afterwards baled. The brown and black are sold to plasterers. Those who purchase the white often mix it with wool and use it for making many useful articles.

The fleshings and trimmings are sold to manufacturers of glue.]

The Story in a Pair of Shoes

Pictures by Courtesy of United Shoe Machinery Co.