POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



149 



sitting in a chair suspended some yards below the machine. As the 

 ultimate machine will probably be of tougher material than wood and 

 silk, in time of war the operator and the motor would be protected as 

 well as hidden, instead of being a splendid target for every shot from 

 below. 



Kites that are tetrahedral in form, as the red and white fliers 

 shown in Figs. 6 and 9 and those used to form the superstructure of 

 Mabel II., have perfect equilibrium, but because of their small resultant 

 area of horizontal or sustaining surface, their lifting power, though 

 considerable, is not as great as Dr. Bell is satisfied to obtain. His 

 latest combinations have, therefore, 

 been made in the hope of obtaining 

 greater horizontal surface, and thus 

 greater lifting power. In Figs. 21 

 and 23 is shown a new form of 

 kite, Victor I., which is undoubtedly 

 the most wonderful kite ever devised 

 and put together. 



This great H-shaped kite rose 

 from the hand, without running, in 

 a breeze so light that a flag on a pole 

 fifty yards away hung limp and 

 motionless. It glided up and up 

 until it was flying six or seven hun- 

 dred yards high, steady as a table 

 top. The breeze at that elevation 

 was perhaps flve or six miles, though 

 on the ground the movement of the 

 lir was so light as to be imper- 

 ceptible even on the grass or trees. 

 In a breeze of fifteen miles it fiew 

 as steadily as before, but nearer the 

 perpendicular and with a tremendous pull. 



A glance at the photographs will readily explain what makes the 

 kite such a remarkable flier. The cells of the two wings are reversed, 

 the keels of the cells pointing up instead of down, and the tips pointing 

 down instead of up, while above each tier of cells stretches a wide 

 aeroplane. This wide expanse of sustaining surface helps the winged 

 cells tremendously and at the same time does not interfere with their 

 working. Victor I. is three meters long, three meters wide and one 

 meter deep and weighs only twelve pounds. The flying weight is only 

 three hundred and fifty grams to the square meter of horizontal sur- 

 face. A smaller kite of similar model has been constructed whose 

 flying weight is about two hundred grams. 



Fig. 20. Model of Mabel II. in Air. 



