AERONAUTICAL WORK. 45 
surfaces are made of very inferior calico. The timber parts are 
of American red wood. 
For the third trial the five kites tabulated on Plate 9 were 
taken to the beach. A, B and C were flown on forty-three fathoms 
of log line, which they broke. © was dragged through a lagoon 
and B caught on the branch of a dead tree. B was released 
undamaged ; and, with assistance, A and B were dragged back to 
the anchorage ; the moorings consisting of a sack of sand close to 
the sea, 
A stronger line was bent on to B; and then D and E were 
flown, the sling seat being attached below E. The strain on the 
line was about eighty pounds, and the distance of E from the 
ground, eight or nine feet.. The line was then slacked away to 
forty-two feet, when the pull reached a maximum of one hundred 
and sixty pounds. 
The velocity of the wind on the beach was 16°8 miles per hour, 
and falling lighter ; so that the result of the third trial was that 
two hundred and thirty-two square feet of kites pulled two 
hundred and three pounds: that is, one hundred and sixty pounds 
on the spring balance plus forty-three pounds weight of gear aloft: 
the slope of the kite line being about 65° with the horizon. The 
velocity of the wind on the beach, might be, and most probably 
was, very much less than at A or even at E. 
The distances between the kites were A to B, ninety-six feet ; 
 BtoD, seventy-eight feet ; D to E, eighty-four feet. 
After a tedious delay, waiting for a suitable wind, the fourth 
_ trial took place on November 12th. The five kites were the same 
: used on the last occasion, with the exception that the wires used 
for the chords of the bending battens had been removed. Plate7 
> shows the method of curving the surfaces on the supposition that 
tore lift is obtained thereby, which is very doubtful with a calico 
of After A, B, Cand E had been successfully flown, a rather flimsy 
joint at the right hand lower corner of the forward cell of C gave 
