The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-10-14
KITE PHOTOGRAPHY.
eecent' Experiments In Boston by
an Expert Operator
Possibilities OF the Method In War Tine
for Armies and Navies-High BuilA-
inEs Would Not He Necessary
fer Observations.

William A. Eddy writes of his recent
experiments in Boston: THE use of kite
photography TO the army and navy II
yet in a pioneer state, and many inn
prove1nents remain to be made In the
apparatus, with which took the first
kite nid-air photograph Of Boston on
August Is, 1895, at 10:40 a. m. The
wind on Monday had been too high to
enable me to raise my camera to sufh-
Gent height to enable me to expose the
Rlm. There is nothing kite seems to
resent SO much as the addition OF a
weight to the line running up to it. In
order to lift a camera weighing three
pounds to height Of 1000 feet a strong
uplifting pull of 20 or 80 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 90 miles an hour,
the same work may be better done by
means of the upward pull of FIVE kites
of the same size.
1.-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 falling off in the wind,
may drop the camers-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
merits were carried out. the chief diff
Guilty to overcome was the updraft and
all high buildings, especially at noon.
when the sun shining upon vertical
walls gives rise TO strong vertical cur
rents. Another difficulty to be obviated
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
falling, owing to want of wind. The
inside kite by becoming stalled at the
pornice 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 a new film into
place. This would DO away with the
hauling down of the camera at the CON-
pletion 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 a balloon downward and
force the gas out Of it, destroying its
buoyancy. Encanpments can be seen
beyond very high hills. The photo
graphs taken at a, height of several hun
dred feet above Blue Hill observatory
reveal 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 nsan-of-wer would
keep the camera in the air during a
dead calm, while blythe use of a steam
launch a camera in mid-air supported
by kites could be lowed toward shore
in shallow water where a man-of-war
could not enter. / 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 a projecting
roof to the lens, and withsthe 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 penpantof an enemy's
vessel 10 miles away, should the octagon
camera be raised to n 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.
"We all like to look out from noun
tains, and nearly all the aeronauts have
mentioned their exhilarstion at the vast
hollow bowl-like earth below them,
with it's horizon 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 vissas, taken with
the aid Of the kite-air camera, must be
always interesting TO many people. Ac-
cording to the weather bureau records,
August is usually the mildest month of
the year. In photographing Boston
with my kite camera have been de
layed several days by unfavorable con.
ditions which prevented me from TAX.
ing as many photographs of important
historic parts of the city as I would
like 10 have taken ] am indebted 20
J. v. Smith. of the weather bureau. 10
c. W. Clark. to II. A. Horton and to
countless others for friendly help in
many difficult emergencies" Spring.
field Mass.) Republican