24(5 EXPLORATION OF ATMOSPHERE AT SEA BY KITES. 



cooperation of an international committee. Balloons with aeronauts 

 and balloons carrying only self- recording- instrmiients to still greater 

 heights ascend on a certain day each month in France, Germany, Aus- 

 tria, and Russia, while kites supply the observations nearer the ground. 

 It frequently happens, however, that on the appointed day the wind at 

 the ground is insufficient to raise the kites, although the balloons drift 

 with the upper currents to great distances. 



While, from what precedes, it is evident that the use of kites on 

 land has hitherto been limited to favorable circumstances, yet, b}^ the 

 simple expedient of installing the kites on board a steamship, kites 

 mav not only be flown during calms and gales, but also in places above 

 which no observations have been possible heretofore. Except in very 

 bad weather kites can always be flown from either a stationary or a 

 moving ship, since, when the air is calm, by steaming through it at a 

 speed of 10 or 12 knots, the kites can be raised to the height that they 

 would reach in the most favorable natural wind, and, on the contrary, 

 the force of strong winds can be reduced in the same proportion if the 

 vessel moves with the wind. In the case mentioned, when the wind 

 fails at a certain height, the motion of the vessel will suffice to pull the 

 kites through this calm zone and into the stronger upper current that 

 usually suffices to lift them still higher. Thus kites can be flown on 

 board a steamer under almost all conditions, and more easily than on 

 land, since the steadier winds at sea, especially the wind artificially 

 created, facilitate launching them. Steam power is always available 

 to operate the kite winch, and the wire from it may be led over a 

 pulley on a yard-arm capable of being turned so as to bring the kites 

 clear of the rigging, etc. Wherever these observations in the upper 

 air ma}^ be made, there is always a station at sea level, and not far dis- 

 tant horizontalh^ with which to compare them. 



To test the practicability of this method of flying kites, experiments 

 were undertaken on August 22, 1901, with the aid of my assistants, 

 Messrs. Fergusson and Sweetland, upon a towboat chartered for this 

 purpose to cruise in Massachusetts Bay. Anticyclonic weather condi- 

 tions prevailed, and a southeast wind blew from 6 to 10 miles an hour, 

 but at no time with sufficient velocity to elevate the kites, either from 

 sea level or from the adjacent Blue Hill. With the boat moving 10 

 miles an hour toward the wind, and within an angle of 45° on either 

 side of its mean direction, the resultant wind easily lifted the kites 

 and meteorograph, with 3,600 feet of wire, to the height of half a 

 mile. In Plate I, figures 1, 2, and Plate II, figure 3, show, respec- 

 tively, the meteorograph supported by the kite, a nearer view of the 

 kite, and the hand reel and meteorograph on deck. 



While it is desirable to have a vessel that can be started, stopped, 

 and turned at the will of the meteorologist, as was the case in the 

 experiments described, it seemed nevertheless probable that soundings 



