58 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



pended from four llargrave cells to a height of forty-two feet above 

 New York Bay. 



The later instance referred to is thoroughly verified and reliable. 

 It is the ascent made by Mr. Charles IT. Tamson, near Portland, 

 Maine, on June ]9, 1897, to an elevation of fifty feet with a single 

 kite of the form devised by him. In most other exploits of this kind 

 the aeronaut has been drawn up Ijy a pulley to kites already well 



poised aloft; but Mr. Tamson 

 started with his kite, running 

 along on the ground as it was 

 drawn forward, and going up 

 with it when the initial impulse 

 had been gained. The Lamson 

 kite is constructed on an original 

 idea, though it is a combination 

 of the flat and the cellular types. 

 The gain in height of ascent 

 by kites since experiments began 

 at Blue Hill has been at the rate 

 of about one thousand feet each 

 year. The highest ascent pre- 

 vious to 1897 was made by a six- 

 foot kite of the Malay or Eddy 

 pattern, on October 8, 1896. 

 The elevation attained was 9,400 

 feet above tide-water, 9,300 feet above the surrounding country, and 

 8,770 feet above the top of Blue Hill, which is 635 feet above the sea 

 — in full view from its summit. The meteorological instruments 

 made records up to a height of 9,375 feet. 



A higher ascent was made early in the autumn of 1897 at Blue 

 Hill, when the leader of a tandem, a Lamson kite, reached an 

 elevation of 11,060 feet (two and a tenth miles), where it was 

 broken by the strong wind. The observatory people now hope 

 that, with the Lamson kite as a leader, they will be able to send 

 their instruments to a much greater height. 



The elevation of the kites is determined Ijy the same means used 

 for mountains — the pressure of the atmosphere as recorded in the 

 barometer, and calculations with the angle the kites make with 

 the extremities of a base line. The string has too much indeter- 

 minate sag to furnish an accurate measurement. 



It has been found that with an increase of altitude a constantly 

 lowering temperature is encountered, except rarely, when there is 

 an overlying Avarm stratum, ushering in a spell of unseasonably 

 warm weather. At the apj^roach of these warm tides, when the 



Meteorograph. 



