Friom Wikipedia
Langstroth was popularly credited with discovering the "bee space," though this discovery had already been implemented in European hives. In Europe, both Jan Dzierżon and August von Berlepsch had been focused on side-opened hives. Land resources in Europe had been limited, and traditionally bees were kept in beehouses. The presently so-called “bee space” had been incorporated by Berlepsch following Dzierzon’s discoveries, from the years 1845-1848, into his frame arrangement (Bienen-Zeitung, May 1852). Langstroth made many other discoveries in beekeeping, and contributed greatly to the industrialization of modern beekeeping.
Langstroth revolutionized the beekeeping industry by using bee space in his top-opened hive. In the summer of 1851 he found that, by leaving an even, approximately bee-sized space between the top of the frames holding the honeycomb and the flat coverboard above, he was able to quite easily remove the coverboard, which was normally well cemented to the frames with propolis, making separation hard to achieve. He later used this discovery to make the frames themselves easily removable. He found that, if he left a small space (less than 1/4 inch or 6.4 mm) between the combs, or between the combs and the sides of his hives, the bees filled it with propolis, cementing the combs into the hive. On the other hand, when he left a larger space (more than 3/8 inch or 9.5 mm), the bees filled it with comb.
On 5 October 1852, Langstroth received a patent on the first movable frame beehive in America. A Philadelphia cabinetmaker, Henry Bourquin, a fellow bee enthusiast, made Langstroth's first hives for him and by 1852 Langstroth had more than a hundred of these hives and began selling them where he could. Langstroth spent many years attempting to defend his patent without success. He never earned any royalties because the patent was easily and widely infringed. Langstroth hives are still in common use today.
So the Stewerton was invented in 1819, and Langstroth took his patent out in 1852.
Says it all really....
PH