KITE-FLYING IN 1891. 61 



Probably tlie most striking thing in recent kite-flying is the 

 making of photographic views by a camera in the sky, borne up by 

 kites. Mr. "William A. Eddy has claimed to be the pioneer in this 

 field, having taken views from kites on May 30, 1895; while 

 Messrs. G. T. Woglom and George E. Henshaw, of jSTew York city, 

 claim that the first good picture from a camera sustained by kites was 

 made by them on the afternoon of September 21st, following. 



There are several ways in which a camera could be carried up, 

 and operated from terra firma. Mr. Eddy sends it up with its 

 bearer attached to the strings of as many as three kites. The 

 apparatus consists simply of two spars about the length of a trout 

 rod, and of about its size at the butt, the end of one spar being 

 joined firmly to the middle of the other; and on this junction the 

 camera is mounted. A cord looped along the trunk line controls the 

 slide of the camera. Many excellent pictures have been made by 

 these means. 



Kites have been used, also, for sending up colored lights for sig- 

 naling; while by an ingenious use of a large and soinewhat modified 

 camera, views of objects at a distance have been presented to observers 

 on the ground, when such objects would have been otherwise in- 

 visible to them. Thus the operation constitutes a sort of artificial 

 mirage, which, very likely, will not always be without its uses. 



It may reasonably be expected that kite-flying will, in the early 

 future, become one of the most common pastimes, as it has already 

 become a scientific pursuit at many places; being specially adapted 

 to certain situations, as islands and upland regions. 



On the Isles of Shoals, off the JSTew Hampshire shore, during 

 the last season there was a very elegant kite carnival. ISTearly one 

 hundred kites were there, mostly in the hands of children. The 

 larger number were of the Clayton cellular pattern, but of small 

 size. On one occasion sixteen of them were flown to a great height 

 in a single tandem. Each kite was differently marked, by color or 

 other means, so that these alone afforded a very pleasing spectacle, 

 without regarding the delighted children and their maturer com- 

 panions beneath. 



Kites in tandem, unlike members of equine and other tandems, 

 are rarely if ever in line, but diverge irregularly, like the branches of 

 a tree. This is owing to variations in the flow of the atmosphere, 

 which appears to be less uniform than the currents in a river, having 

 eddyings, swervings, and evanescent accelerations and retardations. 



Aside from the charming groups watching their progress, there 

 is pleasure for any observer in a flight of these ethereal forms, vari- 

 ous in color, dispread from the trunk line as though they were huge 

 leaves or high-flying butterflies on the tips of invisible branches. 



