The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-01-23
PROF. MOORE'S KITE.
"A Balloon Holds 1t Up in Gains and II
Protected by 1t In Gales.

Inc meteOrOlOglStS nave admitted fof
many years that some knowledge of the
condition of the upper air will be very
valuable as an aid to weather predic.
}tion. The upper air strata are peculiar.
lily inaccessible in the case of an attempt
to suspend meteorological instruments
for many hours above any local point,
owing to sudden gusts and equally sud-
Gen Gains. A captive balloon during
strong winds is apt to be disabled by
the variable pressure upon its immense
globe of confined gas. The wind, if
very powerful, may drive the tethered
balloon downward sidewise and force
the gas out of it's neck, causing loss of
buoyancy.
According to recent drawings, made
in London, Prof Willis L. Moore, chief
Of the United States weather bureau, is
experimenting with a combination OF
the balloon and the kite, by which dur
Ping dead Gains the gas bags at the
back of the kite may carry it upward
while during strong winds the kite
would take the pressure and protect
the gas apparatus behind it.
The Moore kite, as drawn, has tail,
which may ultimately be dispensed
with, as in the case of the kites devised
by me in 1891, says the writer, Prof.
William A. Eddy, and used recently in
the Sunday World Photographic eX-
Vonriments above New York. The tail
Rites used by me on February 4, 1891,
for probably the first thermetric kite
observation in the world, were heXa.
gonal, and carried upward very steep
string, almost equalizing the Ferpen-
dicular ascending power of the tailless
| kite, the first experiments with which
were begun in the spring of the same
year.
| Instead of very large kite, such as
the drawing of Prof. Moore's kite in.
dicates, [ sent up several heNagonal
tail kites, about five feet in diameter.
| flying in tandem from one main line.
OF course, in using tail kites, the
branch line, extending to each kite,
had to be about three times as long as
| that used for tailless kites, so as to pre-.
vent the tails of the upper kites from
becoming entangled with the branch
ing tandem lines below.
L found that when sufficient line was
allowed TO each kite there was no
trouble in using tail kites with which
to send up my thermometer. Prof
Moore's possible plan for sustaining a
balloon by means of tail kite is more
likely to be Immediately successfI! than
If he attempted to balance in the air
a balloon tailless kite, because found
during hundreds of kite ascensions
that nobody knows what the wind will
do next.
Since fiat kites of light construction
in mild winds, require little tail, il
seems to follow that gas-inflated kite
will need very small tail weights to
balance it if the wind is light. In a
strong wind tail about 300 feet in
length will be required. Prof. Moore's
proposed line of experiment is interest
ing and valuable, and if all the weather
bureau stations are equipped with such
an apparatus the predictions would be
more exact.
The experiments made with my kites
at Blue Hill observatory, near Boston
where ink-recording Instruments were
held up in the air during successive
days, amply established the fact that
cold waves reach the upper air severa
hours in advance of their appearance
On the earth's surface. | announced
this theoretically in the American Me
neurological Journal for July, 1891, bu,
i had few observations from aloft il
support of it, and l thought then thai
il might have been due to a coincidence
Since that time the elaborate expert
ments at the Blue Hill observatory il
| August, 1895, have reaffirmed it. Tht
curves have been carefully worked out
at the observatory by II. H. Clayton
indicating that abnormal GOODNESS o.
he air aloft denotes the approach of I
cold wave which soon reaches the sur
face. When the air rushes up Mount
Washington or Pixies Peak it carrie.
with it the kite observations. A re
leased balloon drifts away with the ap
preaching cold wave, and so the de
cline of temperature aloft is not proper
ly compared with the surface tempera
ture.
Kites of light construction can main
tain themselves aloft six days in sever
at New York, and probably four day.
in seven at Cincinnati, where the wint
is light, if night winds in both cite,
are included in the estimate. Blu
Prof. Moores kite, if he uses gas, woult
doubtless make the record almost con
tlnuous. Since there is often plenty o
wind aloft and none at the surface o
the earth, the facts are only approx
mately known at presently. Y. World