PRESENT STATE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE. 77 
velocity, employing a Biram’s anemometer, which registered the total 
amount of wind from beginning to end of the flight.! 
In 1885 Alexander McAdie repeated Franklin’s experiments on Blue 
Hill, U.S.A., using an electrometer,” and in 1891 and 1892 he measured 
the electric potential simultaneously at the base, on the slopes, and with 
kites above the summit of Blue Hill. About the same time L. Weber 
was making more extensive use of kites at Breslau, Germany, to collect 
electricity.* About 1890 Wm. A. Eddy, after making experiments with 
various forms of kites, devised a modified form of the Malay tailless kite, 
and in 1891 used several of these to raise a minimum thermometer, pro- 
posing thus to obtain additional data for weather-forecasting. The ex- 
periments were continued at the Blue Hill Observatory, and in 1894 the 
first continuously recording instrument was sent up.’ Later, the weight 
of the instruments was reduced and more efficient kites were devised. 
A report on the work being carried out at Blue Hill was presented to the 
International Meteorological Conference at Paris, September 1896,° and in 
1898 the International Aeronautical Committee recommended the inclu- 
sion of the kite and kite-balloon among the apparatus of all the principal 
observatories.° In the same year M. L. Teisserenc de Bort equipped a 
kite station at the Observatory of Trappes near Paris, and kites were 
used by M. Rykatcheff at St. Petersburg. In 1901 Rotch made expeti- 
ments with kites flown over the sea from steamships.’ In 1902 kite experi- 
ments were made by W. H. Dines on land and also over the sea from a 
small steam-vessel, on the west coast of Scotland. The experiments were 
continued at Oxshott and subsequently at Pyrton Hill for the Meteorological 
Office. In the same year successful kite experiments were made by 
Berson and Elias in a cruise to Spitsbergen, by Képpen in the Baltic,® 
and by Fassig, for the American Weather Bureau, in the Bahamas.'° 
Teisserenc de Bort extended his experiments to Scandinavia in 1902-03, 
and under his direction kites were flown day and night when possible at 
Hald in Jutland during nine months. The apparatus was then transferred 
to a Danish gunboat and ascents were made over the Baltic. During this 
cruise the highest kite ascent up to that date was made, the height recorded 
being 5,900 m.'' During the autumn of 1904 Professor Hergesell made 
a series of ascents from the yacht of the Prince of Monaco over the Atlantic, 
in the neighbourhood of the Canary Islands, and the Azores.'? These 
experiments were followed in 1905 by a similar expedition, organised 
by Teisserenc de Bort and Rotch, to the neighbourhood of Madeira, 
Teneriffe, and Cape Verde,'* and the expedition was repeated in 
1905 and 1906.1! The experiments were extended at the desire of the 
International Committee to India in 1905, observations being made at 
- Karachi in 1905 and subsequently at Belgaum.'? In 1907 a similar station 
1 Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1884, p. 639, and 1885. 
2 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, vol. xxi. pp. 129-134. 
% Electrotechnische Zeitschrift., November 1886 and August 1889. 
* Quarterly Journ. Roy. Met. Soc., 1897. The observatory was established and 
oe’ by Rotch. Much of the experimental work was carried out by H. H. 
ayton. 
_ § Nature, vol. lvi. p. 602. 6 Tbid., vol. lviii. p. 380. 
* Thid., vol. \xvii. p. 137. 8 Thid., vol. xvii. p. 311. 
® Ergeb. der Arbeit. am Aér. Obs. Lindenberg, pp. 1-20, 1901-1902. 
10 Nature, vol. 1xx. p. 228. 
" Travaux de la Station Franco Scandinave & Hald, 1902-03, p. 40. 
2 Compt. rend.140, pp. 331-333, January 30, 1905 ; ibid., pp. 1569-1572, June 5, 1905. 
‘8 Thid., 141, pp. 605-608, October 9, 1905; 142, pp. 918-921,-April 9, 1906. 
"Nature, vol. \xxiv. p. 40; Ixxv. p. 211. 8 Thid., vol. Ixxvili. p. 280. 
