Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth
Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895) was an American apiarist, clergyman and teacher, and considered to be the father of American beekeeping. He created the modern day Langstroth hive.[1]
Langstroth was born in
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Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895) was an American apiarist, clergyman and teacher, and considered to be the father of American beekeeping. He created the modern day Langstroth hive.[1]
Langstroth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Christmas day, 1810. He graduated from Yale University in 1831, and subsequently held a tutorship there in 1834-1835. After this he was pastor of various Congregational churches in Massachusetts, including the South Church in Andover, Massachusetts in May 1836. From 1843-48 he served as pastor of Second Congregational Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts A large granite marker was placed on the church's front lawn by national beekeeper E.F. Phillips and others in 1948. In 1848, Langstroth became principal of a young ladies' school in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
The Leaf Hive, invented in Switzerland in 1789 by François Huber, was a fully movable frame hive, but had solid frames that were touching and made up the "box". The combs in this hive were examined like pages in a book. Langstroth acknowledged Huber's contribution: "The use of the Huber hive had satisfied me that, with proper precautions, the combs might be removed without enraging the bees, and that these insects were capable of being tamed to a surprising degree. Without knowledge of these facts, I should have regarded a hive permitting the removal of the combs as quite too dangerous for practical use." (Langstroth on the Honey-Bee, 1860)
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