The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-10-22
PHOTOGRAPHIC FROM KITES.
New Aerial Method Experimental with
in Boston.

Experiments in Boston: The use of kit.
Photography for the army and navy is
yet IN pioneer state, and many i'm
provements remain to be made in the
apparatus with -stiich l took the first
KITE mid-air photograph of Boston on
August 25, 1896, at 40 a. IN. The
wind on Monday had been too high to
enable me to raise my camera to suffi-
cient height to enable me to expose the
film. There is nothing a kite seems to
resent so much as the addition of
weight to the line running up to it. In
order to lift camera weighing three
pounds to a height of 1000 feet strong
uplifting pull of 20 or 30 pounds must
be eXerted. If the wind is light, as
many as eight kites, each one seven feet
in diameter, must be employed, but if
the wind is strong, say 20 miles an hour,
the same work may be better done by
means of the upward pull of five kites
of the same size.
THE obstacles to be overcome in mid
air photography are formidable, es-
pecially when the kites are sent up from
a grass plot or from ground covered by
bushes. The sudden decline of the
kites, due to a falling off in the wind,
may drop the camera-snapping line to
the ground, where it may become en-
tangled in weeds. In flying kites high
buildings, like the new fremont build
ing in Boston, where my recent expert
ments were carried out, the chief diff
Guilty to overcome was the updraft and
whirling air currents which pertain to
ALI high buildings, especially at noon,
when the sun shining upon vertical
walls gives rise to strong vertical cur
rents. Another difficulty to be obviatei
in regard to kite photography from
high buildings arises from a lower
tandem kite catching in an overhanging
cornice when the wind is light and a
line of six or seven kites is steadily
falling, owing to want of wind. The
inside kite by becoming stalled at the
cornice may make it impossible to draw
in the declining kites, causing the whole
line to go down over tree tops, chimneys
and roofs.
There are many great improvements
to be made in kite photography, the
principal one of which is the exposure
of film which is very wide and which
would include more of the horizon line.
At the same time the camera shutter
will be opened and closed by electricity,
which will also turn n new film into
place. This would do away with the
hauling down of the camera at the COM
pleton of each exposure. So uncertain
is the wind that any device which will
save time must greatly facilitate the
work.
"The value of kite photography in
the army is beyond question, because it
costs far less than that OF balloons, and
because the cameras can be kept above
a local point in strong winds, which
would press n balloon downward and
force the gas out of it. destroying its
buoyancy Encampments can be seen
beyond very high hills. The photo
graphs taken at height of several hum
bred feet above Blue Hill observatory
reveal a valley and horizon line beyond
an adjacent high hill of the range The
smoke of camp fires, the dust of wagon
trains, would certainly reveal the APP
proach of an army. In the navy the
rapid motion of a man-of-war would
keep the camera in the air during a
dead calm, while by the use of a steam
launch a camera in nid-air supported
by kites could be lowed toward shore
in shallow water where a man-of-war
could not enter. l propose to make
further experiments to enable me to
point my camera nearly in the direction
from which the sun is shining | think
this can be done by excluding part Of
the suns rays by means of projecting
roof to the lens, and with the size of thin
colored glass.
SHOULD this succeed then eight
cameras, back to back, in the form of an
octagon, could be snapped at once. re-
vealing the smoke pennant of an enemy's
vessel 40 miles away, should the octagon
camera be raised to height of 900 feet.
Such camera could be readily lifted in
a dead calm at sea by means of eight
kites, 20 feet in diameter, should the
man-of-war move at the rate of Is miles
an hour.
eve all like to look out from noun
tains, and nearly all the aeronauts have
mentioned their eXhlaration at the vast
hollow bowl|i&e earth below them,
with its horizcn line forming a ring
level with the eye. All our high build
ings are sought for purposes of such
observations. In the level landscape,
often extending hundreds of miles in
the central west, such vistas, tallenwith
| the aid of the kite-air camera, must be
always interesting to many people. Ac-
cordng to the weather bureau records,
August is usually the mildest month of
the year. In photographing Boston
with my kite camera I have been de-
layed several days by unfavorabe con-
ditions which prevented me from TAX
ing as many photographs of important
historic parts of the city as I would
like to have taken. I am indebted to
J. w. Smith, of the weather bureau. to
C. W. Clark, to H. A. Horton and to
countless others for friendly help in
many difficult emergences."- Spring
field (Mass.) Republican.
Unwelcome Arrivals.
st. Peter-IIalt!