From C.C.Miller's fifty years among the bees;
One morning, five or six of us, who had occupied the same bed-room the previous night during the North American Convention at Cincinnati, in 1882, were dressing, preperatory to another days work. Among the rest were Bingham, of smoker fame, and Vandervort, the foundation mill man. I think it was Prof. Cook who was chaffing these inventors, saying something to the effect that they were always at work studying how to get up something different from anybody else, and, if they needed an implement, would spend a dollar and a days time to get up one "of their own make" rather than pay 25 cents for a better one ready-made. Vandervort, who sat contemplatively rubbing his shins dryly replied: "But they take a world of comfort from it." I think all bee-keepers are possessed of more or less of the same spirit. Their own inventions and plans seem the best to them, and in many cases they are right, to the extent that two of them, having almost opposite plans, would be losers to exchange plans.
It held true then, and it holds true now!