In 1873, Moses Quinby, a beekeeper from New York, invented a practical bee smoker, the design we use today. The new design stood upright with the bellows to the side of the fire box (the smoker barrel), and was easy to use with one hand (see Figure 1).
Not surprisingly, creative beekeepers offered their modifications to Quinby’s design; some additions made critical improvements. Most notably in 1878, Tracy F. Bingham patented his famous “direct-draft” smoker. Bingham left an open gap (not a solid pipe connection) between the bellows and the fire box. When a beekeeper set aside the Bingham smoker during hive work, a passive airflow ascended through the gap, up though and around the embers, and out the funnel. This passive draft kept the embers alive until the beekeeper needed another application of smoke. Quinby’s original smoker had a prominent solid pipe connecting the bellows and the fire box (at the bottom of the smoker in its current position). Lacking a draft, the embers frequently extinguished before the colony inspection ended, leaving the beekeeper unprotected, and causing plenty of complaints (see Figure 2).
Quinby was actively working on improving his smoker. Unfortunately, one night in May of 1875, he perished suddenly, apparently of a massive stroke. From its brief beginning, Quinby gave his great advancement in apiculture to the beekeepers of the world, without any hesitation, without any restrictions from a patent calling for profit for him or his estate. Long before his smoker invention, Quinby was a well-known beekeeper. He included his smoker along with the other beekeeping supplies he had for sale, including large quantities of honey from his commercial operation. All the while anyone, even a neighboring beekeeper, was free to make a Quinby smoker, or have it made by a local tinsmith, without the threat of a lawsuit for patent infringement from him …
