USE OF KITES IN METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 231 



Notwith.standing- its intensity the quantity of electricity in the atmos- 

 phere appears insufficient to warrant its collection and storao-e for 

 practical purposes. 



During the sunnner of 1898 the United States Weather Bureau 

 undertook, to obtain daily from seventeen stations equip))ed with kites 

 (situated chiefly in the Mississippi Valley), automatic records at a 

 height of about a mile, with which to draw a synoptic chart of the 

 upper air for forecasting in connection with a similar chart of surface 

 observations. The high-level chart could not be drawn regularly on 

 account of light winds at some stations, but much data concerning 

 temperature gradients were obtained, and these ha\ e Ijeen published. 

 Since the work at Blue Hill was made known to foreign meteorolo- 

 gists, who have received drawings and models of our apparatus, the 

 use of kites to obtain meteorological djita has V^een taken up exten- 

 sively on the Continent of P^urope, and already the meteorological 

 bureaus of France, (Termaiiy, and Russia have established depart- 

 ments for the purpose of obtaining observations in the free air with 

 both kites and balloons. 



Whenever there is Avind, kites-possess advantages over any other 

 method of exploring the air up to the height of at least 1.5,000 feet. 

 Although only on mountains can observations at a uniform height be 

 maintained continuously, yet the conditions there are not those of the 

 free air at an ecjual height. Olwervations in a drifting balloon are 

 afi'ected ))y the heated or stagnant air accompanying the balloon, and 

 the progressive changes in the atmospheric conditions at one place 

 can not be studied, because, generally, these observations are not 

 comparable with simultaneous observations made at one station on the 

 ground. With kites, however, frequent ascents and descents permit 

 the true conditions prevailing in superposed strata of air at definitely 

 known heights to be obtained nearly simultaneously. Kites can rise 

 much higher than captive balloons, which are borne down b}^ the 

 weight of the cable necessar}^ to control them. Finally, kites cost 

 very much less than either mountain stations or balloons. It appears, 

 therefore, that in future the equipment of a first-class meteorological 

 observatory should include the kite (and perhaps the German kite- 

 balloon for use when the wind is lacking), so that automatic records 

 may be obtained daily at the hefght of a mile or two in the free air, 

 at the same time that similar observations are made at the ground. 



