René Réamur (1683 - 1757)
| The
uniformity of cell size is such that a French scientist
René Réamur proposed the cell of the honey bee as a
standard measure. René Antoine Ferchault Réamur was
known as the "Historian of the bees", his
"Natural History of the Bees" is a
classic in its field. Although the hexagonal cells do vary slightly under different conditions the following anecdote quoted from Edwin Way's "The Golden Throng" demonstrates this uniformity. |
| "An instance which illustrates this fact was related to me by a New York diemaker. Sometime ago, he was commissioned to produce a zinc die for pressing honeycomb into the foundations used in beehives. The die was completed; the comb foundations made. Then it was discovered the bees refused to use them. A check up revealed that the workman who had laid out the die had been off on his cell dimensions, a tiny fraction of an inch. When the die was redesigned and the error eliminated, the insects accepted the new foundations and built their cells upon them." |
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Micscape Magazine September 1998.
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