226 USE OF KITES IN METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



joined a recording anemometer to the thermometer, which was prob- 

 ably the lirst apparatus of this kind to be attached to kites. Subse- 

 quently there was used 'the meteorograph, recording atmospheric 

 pressure, air temperature, and relative humidity, designed by M. 

 Richard, of Paris, for use in balloons, but now for the first time made 

 of aluminum. In August, 1895, in addition to the Eddy kites, there 

 was tried the cellular, or box kite, invented by Lawrence Hargrave, 

 of Sydney, Australia, which bears no resemblance to the conventional 

 forms of kites, but consists of two light boxes without tops or bottoms, 

 fastened some distance above each other. The wind exerts its lifting 

 force chiefly upon the front and rear sides of the upper box, the lower 

 box, which inclines to the rear and so receives less pressure preserving 

 the l)alance, while the ends of the l)oxes being in line with the wind 

 keep the kite stead}-, and serve the purpose of the dihedral angle in 

 the Malay kite. 



On account of the weight of the large cord necessary to control these 

 kites and the surface which it presented to the wind, a height of 2,000 

 feet above Blue Hill could not be reached; so, during the winter of 

 1895-96, following Archibald's example and the methods of deep-sea 

 sounding employed l)}^ Captain Sigsbee, United States Navy, steel 

 pianoforte wire was substituted for the cord. This wire is less than 

 half as heav}' and less than one-fourth the size of cord having the 

 same strength; and, moreover,^ its surface is polished, which reduces 

 the friction of the wind blowing past it. With the wire the height of 

 a mile was reached in July, and a mile and two-thirds in October, 1896. 

 Up to this time a reel turned by two men sufficed to draw down the 

 kites, l)ut the increasing pull and length of wire made recourse to 

 steam power necessar}^ In January 1897, a grant of money was 

 allotted from the Hodgkins fund of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the purpose of obtaining meteorological records at heights exceeding 

 10,000 feet, and no doubt the first application of steam to kiteflying 

 was the winch built by Mr. Fergusson, with ingenious devices for dis- 

 tributing, oiling, and measuring the length of wire. The cumulative 

 pressure of the successive coils of wire finally crushed the drum, and 

 the next apparatus applied the principle of Sir William Thomson's 

 deep-sea sounding apparatus, in which thei-e is no accumulation of 

 pressure. In October, 1897, records were brought down from 11,000 

 feet, or 1,000 feet above the prescribed height. The kite reel, in its 

 various stages of development, is shown in fig. 1, Plate 1. 



The kites and apparatus at present employed at Blue Hill will now 

 be described: 



The kites are mostly of Hargrave's construction with two rectan- 

 gular cells covered with cloth or silk, except at their tops and bottoms, 

 and one is secured al)Ove the other by four or more sticks. The 

 wooden frames are as light as possible, but are made rigid bj^ gu3\s of 



