March 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



463 



observatory, in the suburbs of that city, 

 the trailing' kite-wires constitute a danger 

 to life and property. The new establish- 

 ment will be in every respect a model one, 

 where balloon and kite ascensions, are to be 

 made several times a day, a motor-boat on 

 a lake permitting the kites to be flown even 

 in calm weather, and, in this way, it is ex- 

 pected that practically continuous meteoro- 

 logical records will be obtained in the free 

 air. As an indication of what had already 

 been done in this respect. Dr. Assmann ex- 

 hibited a chart, encircling the hall, on which 

 were plotted the isotherms at different 

 heights above Berlin, obtained from the 

 ascensions of kites and captive balloons 

 made daily for more than a year. From 

 them Dr. Berson showed that the wind- 

 direction shifted to the right-hand with in- 

 creasing altitude. To complete an account 

 of the aeronautical establishments in Ger- 

 many for atmospheric soundings. Professor 

 Koppen described the kite-station of the 

 Deutsche Seewarte, in Hamburg, where 

 kite-flights are made every day that the 

 wind conditions allow, the observations 

 being published the same day, with those 

 obtained simultaneously above Berlin, in 

 the weather-bulletin issued by the See- 

 warte. Professor Palazzo, director of the 

 Italian Meteorological Office, recounted 

 what was being done in Italy to explore the 

 free air, including the recent use of hallo7is- 

 sondes, and General Rykatchef explained 

 the development of the aeronautical section 

 of the Constantine Observatory at Paw- 

 lowsk, which was later visited by the mem- 

 bers of the conference. Here kite-flights 

 are made whenever possible, the observa- 

 tions being immediately published in the 

 synoptic weather-report of the Central 

 Physical Observatory. The committee con- 

 sidered that a balloon and kite-station in 

 the soiitheast of Europe is desirable and ex- 

 pressed the hope that the Roumanian 



Meteorological Service would cooperate in 

 the international ascensions, and also that 

 a kite-station might be established at Pola, 

 Austria, thereby filling a in the dis- 

 tribution of such stations. 



Mr. Rotch stated that from the observa- 

 tions obtained with kites at Blue Hill dur- 

 ing cyclones and anti-cyclones the former 

 appeared to be the warmer up to a height 

 of at least two miles. Per contra, M. 

 Teisserenc de Bort concluded from his ob-* 

 servations Avith hallons-sondes in Prance 

 that the vertical decrease of temperature 

 in cyclones up to six miles was faster than 

 it was in anti-cyclones. This last speaker 

 gave an account of flying kites from a 

 Danish gunboat in the Baltic in 1903, when 

 the record height for kites of more than 

 19,000 feet was reached, as mentioned in 

 Science, Vol. XVIII., pages 113-14, and 

 he also described recent experiments on his 

 own steam-yacht in the Mediterranean. 

 The most interesting communication, how- 

 ever, was by the president of the committee 

 and related to the atmospheric soundings 

 with kites that he had just executed on 

 board the steam-yacht of the Prince of 

 Monaco, while cruising in the Mediterran- 

 ean and in the vicinity of the Canary Is- 

 lands. It will be remembered that the 

 present writer proposed a more extensive 

 campaign of this nature at the Berlin 

 Aeronautical Congress, and unsuccessfully 

 applied to the Carnegie Institution for a 

 grant of money to equip a steamship to 

 make a series of kite-soundings through 

 the trade-winds and doldrums. Moreover, 

 in 1902 he endeavored to interest the 

 Prince of Monaco in such a scheme, as 

 his colleague, Professor Hergesell, suc- 

 ceeded in doing two years later, and the 

 results of these soundings, which Professor 

 Hergesell announced at St. Petersburg, 

 eminently justified the cooperation. The 

 northeast trade-wind was seen to diminish 



