THE USE OF KITES TO OBTAIN METEOROLOGICAL 

 OBSERVATIONS/ 



By A. Lawrence Rotch, 



Dirrcfnr of Ilhir Ifill Met, ,)r(i!(>(pc(il Oharrnitori/. 



Historical researches, stimulated by the recent practical applications 

 of kites, seem to show that their tirst use for scientitic purposes was 

 in 174:!t, when Dr. Alexander Wilson, of Glasgow, and his pupil, Thomas 

 Melvill, lifted thermometers attached to kites into the clouds. These 

 kites, from 4 to 7 feet high and covered with paper, were fastened one 

 behind the other, each kite taking- up as nuich line as could be sup- 

 ported, thereby' allowing its companion to soar to an elevation propor- 

 tionally higher. It is related that ''the uppermost one ascended toar 

 amazing height, disappearing at times among the white summer clouds, 

 while all the rest, in a series, formed with it in the <iir below such a 

 lofty scale, and that, too, affected by such regular and conspiring 

 motions as at once changed a boyish pastime into a spectacle which 

 greatly int(n-ested every ])eholder. * * * To obtain the informa- 

 tion they wanted, they conti-ived that thermometers, properly secured 

 and having l)ushy tassels of paper tied to them, should be let fall at 

 stated periods from some of the higher kites, which was accomplished 

 by the gra(hial singeing of a match line.'' Since the minimum ther- 

 mometer had not then been invented it is difficult to understand how 

 the thermometers were prevented from changing their readings while 

 falling to the ground. The account concludes: "When engaged in 

 tiiese experiments, though now and then they conmiunicated imiuedi- 

 dately Avith the clouds, yet, as this happened ahvays in tine weather, no 

 symptoms a\ hate^er of an electrical nature came under their o))serva- 

 tion. The subliuK^ analysis of the thunderbolt and of the electricity 

 of the atmosphere lay yet entirely undiscovered, and was reserved two 

 years longer for the sagacity of the celebrated Dr. Franklin." Hence 

 it seems that Frankliirs famous experiment of collecting the electricity 

 of a thundercloud l)y means of a kite, performed at Philadelphia in 

 1752, was not the tirst scientitic application of the kite, and therefore 



•Reprinted (with author's revision) from Technology Quarterly and Proceedings 



of the Society of Arts, Boston, June, 1900. 



223 



