Greetings

I have access to a collection of beekeeping antiques, including smokers, honey pots, and three foundation mills. Two of the mills have hand cranks on them so they may be quite old. I can't make foundation with them, but I put a piece of plain paper through each to see how may cells per inch they make.

One appears to be made of copper or bronze, is in very good condition; quite beautiful to look at, in fact. Perhaps this is the oldest one? It prints out ten cells in two inches (50.8 mm or 5.08 per cell).

Another silver colored one, also in good shape shows 2 1/16" per ten (5.23mm per cell). The third has obviously been used a lot, has very thick cell walls and the cells run 2 1/8" per ten or about 5.4mm from center to center.

Peter Borst, Ithaca NY  USA