KITE-FLYING IN 1897. 



55 



the bulky llaxeu cord jjrevioiislj used, and it offers so mucli less 

 resistance to the wind that two kites on a wire line will bear the 

 instruments to as great a height as six of the same size on a flaxen 

 line. Still, owing to weight and wind, the droop in the wire is so 

 great that about two miles of it are required for one mile of ascent. 



The wire had also some disadvantages, one of which was rust. 

 This has been overcome by an arrangement by which oil is dropped 

 upon it as it is wound in. Another difficulty last year was the start- 

 ling shocks the men holding the line got from the electricity it 



Aluminum Olamp, which attaches kite string to wire of trunk line 

 in a tandem. 



brought down from the sky; but no handling is now required, and 

 the machine carries all the sparks harmless to the ground. 



No attempt is yet reported on the part of the Blue Hill people 

 to investigate specially the electrical phenomena since those by Mr. 

 Alexander McAdie at this observatory in the summer of 1885, 

 and again in 1891 and 1892; but certain gentlemen near New 

 York, assisted by Mr. W. A. Eddy, on the night of November 

 13 th, sent up by means of kites an electrical collector (presumably 

 a plate or wire net of copper), a small copper wire forming the 

 conductor. The first spark was obtained between fifteen and 

 twenty-five minutes after the kites were sent up, and when the 

 collector was at a height of three hundred and eighty-one feet. The 

 time was between ten o'clock and midnight. The temperature at 

 the earth's surface at the time was 38° Fahr., while a self -registering- 

 thermometer sent up on the kites showed 37° at an elevation of 

 four hundred and twenty feet — the sky being clear, or nearly so. 

 Quite likely the records of electrical phenomena at Blue Hill are 

 more full and explicit than this at Bayonne, but neither these nor 

 the theories on the subject have been given to the public. 



The first practical use of electricity obtained by means of kites, 



