Popular Science Monthly 



923 



FIGURE 9 



FIGURE 10 



FIGURE IL 



bring all the slack in the center. This reel was used for this wire, with multiply- 

 forms a pocket under pressure, making ing attachment, and smaller steel wires. 



the head-sail which keeps the kite from 

 pitching. Turn over all the edges and sew 

 them firmly and evenly. You will now 

 have a cover with rings in each corner 

 and re-enforced edge. Turn the raw 

 edges in. Remember it is windy where 

 this kite goes. To bridle the kite, get a 

 piece of wire and bend it as shown in 

 Fig. 12. Solder it into an endless loop. 

 This must be slipped on as the sticks 

 are put together, 

 so that the loops 

 marked A pro- 

 ject through the 

 i-in. hole in the 

 sail, while those 

 marked B pass 

 behind the up- 

 right stick. The 

 bridle string is 



fastened by means of an S-link — 

 as shown, at each end. One link is 

 hooked into the loops marked A, and 

 the other into the ring at the bottom 

 of the kite. You now have a kite 



No. 22 gage being used for each individ- 

 ual kite. 



The method of flying is this: A kite 

 is set up, bridled, and hooked to one of 

 the small wires, this wire paid out 

 from an auxiliary reel, until 200 ft. are 

 alott. The main flying wire is then 

 attached. When 400 ft. are aloft, the 

 reel is checked. A second kite is flown 

 with 200 ft. of lead wire and hooked 

 into the main 

 wire. Both kites 

 are then paid out 

 on the reel, till 

 another 200 ft. 

 is aloft when a 

 third kite is flown 

 and attached. 

 13 This process is 



continued till all 

 kites in the battery are aloft. 

 The reel used contains one mile of wire. 

 The method of attaching the kites to 

 the main line may seem to the novice a 

 means of inviting trouble but in practice 

 which when knocked down and the each kite flies higher than the main line, 

 sail wrapped around the sticks, forms a and invariably some slight difi^ercnce in 

 package 6 ft. long and about 2>^ ins. in balance or variation in direction of the 



j'J 



FIGURE 

 the 



diameter. You can carry six of them 

 easily. You can get on a trolley car or 

 boat with them without trouble, while, 

 if not made as above you could not 

 handle one. After a little practice, they 

 can be put together in a few seconds, 

 and they will carry a boat along in 

 good shape at an amazing speed when 

 properly flown. 



The flying cord used by the writer 

 was a steel wire No. 18 gage, in ^-mile 

 coils, tested to 750 pounds. A special 



wind at difl'erent heights sets them out 

 from the main line at diflerent angles, 

 so that they do not interfere. Four of 

 these kites in a lo-pound wind will give 

 two-thirds the pull of six, as a matter 

 of course. So if you had a 15-pound 

 wind, four would be about all you could 

 handle, while in a 30-pound wind, one 

 would be fully capable (^f keeping you 

 busy even if it did not breaic its back, 

 for a 30-pound wind, blowing 80 miles 

 an hour would give a total loading on 



