KITI: 



miles an hour. This is about the limit of wind 

 pressure in which it ha> thus far been found possi- 

 ble to send up a pnrnk 



:v mtr,lu.-ol hi* kite* at Him- Hill Ob- 

 tory in 1M, and many attempts were there made 

 to reach high altitude* for the purpose of securing 

 .,., -.-..- nil !' IS to this, :., !, M 

 record at Blue Hill was 1,000 feet. In August. 

 1805. 9 Malay kite* were sent up to a height ,,f 

 1,900 feet which was a very unsatisfactory result 



he kites had a lift 



of 880 fcvt and the wind was strong. \\ i 

 reached :W mile* an bour many of the kites, which 

 were of pa. -rn to pieces. The strongest 



pull shown on the line was 112 poonfe A system- 



itttapt was then made to im| ; pan 



of the nicchaniMn nii'l 8 anl thi* work 



was o successful that by 1896 a record of 7,500 

 wan recorded, tin- distance being. calculated 

 from the meteorograph to the surface of the 

 ground on the lull. This recortl was increased to 

 8.740 feet in October, !*!. with 7 Malay an.l ',' 

 liargrave kites, having an area of 170 square feet. 

 On Sept 19, 1897, the record was again broken. and 

 a height of 9,886 feet above the lull was recorded. 

 the elevation above sea level being 10,016 feet. 

 Seven Hargrare kites were used, and 4 miles of 

 wire run out. The ascent was begun at noon, the 

 -t point being attained at 417 P. M. A large 

 part of this success was due to the substitution of 

 steel piano wire for cord as kite string. The win- 

 has two or three times the strength for the 

 weight as has the cord, and presents but one sixth 

 as much surface to the air, so that the sag is great 1 y 

 re<Iu 



Both Hargrave and Lamson made personal kite 

 ascensions before Wise. Hargrave u-,l a tandem 

 of 5 of his 'J- eel led kites, and Lamson used a multi- 

 plane kite of his own peculiar construction, liar- 

 grave ascended only 15 feet, but Lamson ascended 

 100 feet. June 20, 1896, at Portland. Me. He had 

 >usly elevated a 150-pound dummy, on which 

 occasion something broke and the apparatus fell to 

 the ground, but it came down so gently as to give 

 confidence that the danger in a personal ascent was 

 slight. Within the past year or two others have 

 made similar ascents, among them being Lieut. 

 Baden-Powell, of the Scots Guards, Great Britain. 



As a means of signaling, Octave Chanute's mul- 



tiplane kite has been tested by J. E. Mazfield, of 



cs Signal Service, and tests for the 



War Department were made by Lieut. Wise at 



Governor's Island. 



By an arrangement of red, white, and green lan- 



. suspended on either end of a bamboo rod, 



with cords and pulleys for reversing the position 



of the rod. Wise made signals with the regular 



army code at a height of 500 feet In the dayt ime 



Boston, and Bay succeeded in <>\ 



difficulties incident to operating 



camera from B of several humln 



; -hock- from 

 tl of causes. BY arr.i!;^,ii_: s r : 



' 



Mite feat was accomplished with signal flags. 

 For opera t emational code, flags tied to a 



halyard in the proper order were simply run up to 

 a pulley below the kite, one set being di-p 

 while another was being tied on. For night sig- 

 naling with the international code, a long bamboo 

 rod was run up. having fixed to it sticks of differ- 

 ent colored combustible substances, arranged in a 

 These signals were arranged 

 so that they would burn five minutes after hoi 

 and were visible to a distance of fifteen miles. 

 Wise is now experimenting with incandescent 

 trie lights for night signaling, sending the current 

 the inside of a cable and down on the out- 

 side, and employing a telegraph key to flash the 

 messages, on the principle of a heliograph. 



Eddy has given more attention to photography 

 from kites than any any other investigator. 

 has taken numerous photographs in New York city, 



in a ei'rele. with the 



them in midair, lie has obtained conipl. 



t lie hori/.oii. He suggests that -ii'-h ai 



would U- valuable in naval ..Mm- the 



1 ion of ;til enemy below tlie h'Ti/-!! at II 



tancc of 'jo miles. In following out tin- i 



lining Itie kite a , ,f (1 iseoVcri II u r t lull which 



In- natnra 

 terms a vistasoope, a form of camera obscu 



which the image i- thrown on a screen siisp. 

 from the kiti-.and viewed from below with a spyglass. 

 In this manner he has \ie\\ed object- 'J mil> 

 tant hryond intervening hills. 



Mildy. in as-ociation with Dr. William II. Mitchell 

 and Henry L. Allen, in hecember. 

 in sending both telegraphic und telephonic mes- 

 sages over a kite line, without u-ini: el< 

 teries of any -ort. Three kites, each from ' to 

 7 feet in leniMh. were sent up on one line to a height 

 of about l.ooo feet. The cord was fixed to the 

 ground with iron pin-, and about >,-\en in tin 



thin conduct in;; wire und lantern were drawn 

 up by a pulley suspended from the main kile line. 

 The lantern, being u-ed as a weight, wjis allowed 



-end after a lime by letting out the \\ii- 



htchell. going to the hint i-rn end and a 1 

 ing telejihonie instruments to the wire, was a 

 talk to Mr. Kddy over tin- Mm-. n> artiticia! 

 tricity beini: Supplied, the source beini: entin-ly t he 

 static electricity encountered in the higher atmos- 

 phere. 



Since the introduction of steel piano \vire for 

 kite line-, by Archibald, of Kn.u'land. in IKS-}, nn- 

 meroiis eledtrio shocks have been experienced by 

 kite liver-. >teel is not a very p.od conduct' 

 Kddy, in isjrj, tried a copper wire connected with 

 a rectangular affair of tinfoil, which he sent up by 

 his kites as a collector of electricity. He su- 

 ed in producing numerous sparks! At the I'.lue 

 Hill observatory. j M 1885, large silk-covered kites 

 were tried, surfaced with tinfoil, and when they 

 were sent up 1.500 led. -parks were obtaina) 



ound end at all time-, under a cloudle- 

 Theexperimentsdemonstratedthat the ele ( trie volt- 

 age on the wire rose with the ascension of the kites, 

 and diminished as they descended. Durin- experi- 

 ments made from the top of the Washington Monu- 

 ment, in Washington. I). ('., potentials a- hi.irh as 

 4,000 volts were obtained during thui 

 at periods just previous to lightning Mr- 

 operator, who handled the kite wire at the instant 

 that a flash of lightning occurred nearly a mile 

 away, was dangerously shocked. These and other 

 experiments demonstrate that the upper an 

 be tapped at any time for electricity, which is 

 probably generatexl by the -h-.-n-' r air currents cir- 

 culating at the higher levels. 



Almost every experimenter with modern 

 has found it necessary to manufacture hi- own 



and experiment "and try until th> 

 portions were found. Steel is perhaps the. be 

 terial for the frames of large kites, but wood 

 much more convenient that it is ordinarily 



nerally discarded in favor of cambric or 

 silk cloth for the planes. Pine or spruce stici 

 commonly preferred, und for making a liar 

 box kite tne following dimensions and din < 

 are given : Sticks, 4 inch square and 7'J in c he- 



feet apart in one direction and 21 inch- - in 

 the other; the stiffening and bracing are of fine 

 steel wire, piano wire being the best, and the point 

 of attachment for the bracing wires being about 10 



