INVESTIGATION OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE BY KITES. 50 



Iiuvcstigation of the Upper Atmosphere by means of Kites in co-opera- 

 tion uith a Committee of the Royal Meteor olorjical Society. — Seventh 

 Report of the Committee, consisting of Br. W . N. Shaw {Chairman), 

 Mr. W. H. Dines (Secretary), Mr. D. Archibald, Mr. C. Vernon 

 Boys, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, Dr. H. R. Mill, Professor A. 

 Schuster, and Dr. W. Watson. (Drawn up by the Secretary.) 



Meetings of the Joint Committee were held in the rooms of the 

 Royal Meteorological Society on October 16, 1907, and January 22 and 

 May 5, 1908. 



During the year the Committee arranged with Captain Ley tliat 

 he should send up registering balloons on some of the days appointed 

 by the International Committee, more particularly during the period 

 July 27 to August 1, 1908, and also that he should continue the 

 investigation on the direction and velocity of the upper currents V)y 

 the method devised by himself, which requires only one theodolite. 



Captain Ley has carried out a valuable series of observations, and 

 the results will be published in due course. 



The grant of 25^. made last year by the Association has been 

 allotted to the Howard Estate Station, at Clossop Moor, for the purpose 

 of supplementing the observations made there by means of a captive 

 balloon, and a report on the subject by Professor Petavel is appended. 



The Committee ask for I'eappointment and for a grant of 251. 



The Captive Balloon at the Howard Estate Kite Station. 

 By J. E. Petavel, F.B.S. 



The funds granted by the British Association Committee and by 

 the Royal Meteorological Society have been used to erect the necessary 

 gasometer and generating plant at Glossop. 



The gasometer, of some 250 cubic feet capacity, is arranged so that 

 by a manipulation of the counterweights the pressure can be varied, and 

 the gas passed out into the balloon or drawn back from it as may be 

 required. 



Rubber balloons are used having a capacity of some 200 cubic feet. 

 These are filled whenever the wind proves insufficient to raise a kite, and 

 are sent up usually at sunset. The height reached varies from 5,000 feet 

 above sea level in a calm to 1,500 feet or 2,000 feet in a light breeze. 

 Fine steel wire, weighing 4 lb. per mile and having a breaking strain of 

 50 lb., is used for the ascent. 



Up to the present an ordinary Dines kite meteorograph has been 

 employed. 



The balloon is deflated and the gas drawn back into the gasometer 

 each evening. 



At present some thirty ascents have been made, which are of consider- 

 able value, as they maintain the continuity of the observations on days 

 on which it is not possible to send up a kite. 



The apparatus has also been used by Captain Ley and others for pilot- 

 balloon ascents. 



