Kite Making at Home 



How to Build and Fly the Malay, 

 Blue Hill Box and Tetra- 

 hedral Cell Kites 



By Harry F. Rinker 



All the kites to 



be described in this article, 



which is to be concluded in the July 



issue, are here shown 



THOUGH the kite is usually thought 

 of as having four corners, with a 

 grotesque face painted on each 

 side and terminating in a tail of rags, 

 the fact is that this sort of kite has 

 disappeared. Today every boy who 

 is scientifically inclined, can build for 

 himself kites which are 

 as much ahead of the 

 one Benjamin Franklin | 

 used as the motor-cycle > 

 is an improvement over ^ 

 the bicycle. 



6 ® V 4*2 



Building the Malay 



We will begin opera- 

 tions by making six-foot Malays, each 

 of which carries i8 sc]. ft. of sail, or 

 io8 sq. ft. for the battery. The maxi- 

 mum pull from these kites is delivered at 

 approximately 45 degrees flying angle, 

 and the tangent of 45 degrees being .707, 

 the resultant pull equals approximately 

 7/10 the horizontal wind force per square 

 foot. With a ten-pound breeze, therefore, 

 the pull of one kite will be 126 pounds, 

 and six of them will 

 pull 756 pounds. It 

 is evident, therefore, 

 that some mechan- 

 ical advantage is 

 needed by the oper- 



F16URE.2 



921 



ator to handle such a force as this, and 

 such apparatus will be discussed later. 

 The design of the kite is as follows: 

 The frame of this kite consists of two sticks 

 at right angles to each other, supporting 

 the sail. For the six-foot kite, the two 

 sticks are each 6 ft. long. The vertical 

 stick is placed keelwise, 

 while the transverse 

 stick is laid flatwise 

 across it. The required 

 size for the vertical 

 stick is I in. by 3^ in. 

 and for the transverse 

 I stick ^ in. by % in. 



Take a piece of clear 

 white pine, spruce, or fir stock, i3^ ins. 

 thick, and split it once. Plane up the 

 split edge to a straight edge, and rip 

 off, parallel to it, six pieces % in. wide. 

 The majority of the fibers in each piece 

 must run from end to end. Clamp 

 up and plane off to i in. thickness, as 

 shown in Fig. i. Take apart and lay 

 flat on bench as in Fig. 2. and dress to 3^ 

 in. thickness. Spring each piece carefully 

 in your hands to see 

 that it has uniform 

 strength. Get your 

 cross-sticks from i 

 in. or J/g in. stock 

 in a similar manner: 



''0mmimmmM'M0'\ 



