KITE-FLYING IN 1807. 57 



requirements except in the best weather; besides, so large a number 

 are necessary in light winds to carry up the instruments to the de- 

 sired elevation, involving labor and time, that the cellular kites are 

 becoming the chief reliance for meteorological observations aloft. 



The antetyjje of all these is the Hargrave pattern, invented by an 

 Englishman of that name in Australia in 1894. All are remark- 

 able for their lifting capacity, and generally for their ready ascent. 

 The Hargrave consists of a light frame, outlining a box, about 

 which, at each extremity, is a wide band of cloth, the frame being 

 bare at the middle section. In proportions, a rectangular cell six 

 feet long is usually about the same in width, and one fourth as deep 

 as it is wide. There is much variation in most features of the box 

 kite, as made by different fliers. The bridle is attached to the two 

 lower corner bars nearly midway of the length or the four lower 

 corners of the uncovered section, or otherwise, according to form 

 and use. 



For use at Blue Hill, observer Clayton devised a modification 

 of the Hargrave, consisting chiefly in the narrowing of the box, and 

 a difi^erent framing. 



Another form of the cellular type is the diamond kite of Mr. S. 

 A. Potter, of Washington, D. C, whose device has a square instead 

 of an oblong aperture, and has the bridle on one of the longitudinal 

 angles, so that it flies with a corner, instead of a side, downward. 

 To this another Washington inventor has attached a pair of trian- 

 gular wings, which is said to increase the lift very much, l^either 

 of the forms of Hargrave type bears even a suggestive resemblance 

 to the common kite. 



Still another cellular kite is that constructed by Mr. J. B. Mil- 

 let, president of the Boston Aeronaiitical Society. Except by a 

 diagram, an idea of this kite may be best conveyed by saying that, 

 in the main, it is a Hargrave cell doubled, or having a third wall 

 inclosing a superimposed cell; a development which might be car- 

 ried on indefinitely. It is nearly the same form as the flying 

 machine, carrying and operated by a small steam engine — the in- 

 vention of Professor Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution. 



I am not aware that the lifting capacity of any kite has been sub- 

 mitted to so striking a test as on the Hargrave until the present sea- 

 son. Two of these, on November 12, 1894, in Australia, are reported 

 to have borne the inventor up sixteen feet; and in 1895, by the same 

 number, he is said to have been lifted forty-five feet. Subsequently, 

 Captain H. Baden-Powell, of tjie Scotch Grays, in England, was 

 carried up one hundred feet by a tandem of the same type. On 

 January 21, 1897, Lieutenant Hugh D. Wise, of the Mnth In- 

 fantry, United States Army, was lifted in a boatswain's swing sus- 



