Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-09-03

: according to his own opinion. is a duck
ing in the water Of the lake. and as he
will be provided with life preservers
and parachute he does not anticipate
any serious results from such an acc-
Z. dent. Lieut.. Wise will probably make
his ascent some time in September. and
IL he is successful the feat will be a
most remarkable one. The possibili-
ties contingent on the feasibility OF
sending man to great heights In the
air where he can make observations
for long distance or operate signals,
will readily suggest themselves.
A useful adjunct OF tho kite in war
is the camera. A few weeks ago Mr..
Eddy took the first picture ever made
OF a government fortification with
camera suspended from kte-string in
midair. The kiteswer flown from one
of the large Office buildings. and the
photograph was taken when the cam
era was about 900 feet above the sur
face.
The picture was taken with a small
81 by 3h-inch camera; it shows not
only Governors Island, with Castle
Williams in the foreground and the
earthwork known as Fort Columbus be-
hind 1t. but the Battery in New York
city, the western end of Long Island
and the city of Brooklyn, and even the
distant shore lines extending down
to the Narrows. some nine miles
away.
This is not the first photograph that
has been taken from midair. Mr.. Ed
dy has taken many of them with bis
aerial apparatus by means of which
he operates a camera thousand feet
or more above the earth. 1t is the APP
plieability to military uses shown in
this picture that makes it of special
significance. Hitherto governments.
not only the United States but every
civilized nation. have carefully guarded
the plans of the Notifications erected
for their defense; it is contrary to the
regulations for anybody To carry a
camera inside any of the Notifications
or coast defenses. But no government
can police the air. and if anybody
chooses to hang his camera from the
clouds he can secure an accurate pic
ture. showing in detail the plan of any
fertilization he may wish to know
about.
There is nothing to prevent person
as skilled in the art of midair photog-
raphy as Mr.. Eddy from securing exact
reproductions of every coast and har-
Dor defense of the United States; and
in this way the secrets of any nation
may be made known to its rivals and
possible enemies. In the wars that
have been fought heretofore the best
available means of obtaining knowl-
edge of an enemy's defenses has been
by observations taken from captive bal
looms with strong glasses; but in all
such cases the nervousness of the OBJ
server, from the fact of his being in the
air in so exposed a position, and the
pecemeal way in which the observa-
tons have been made. have rendered
them more or less inaccurate. But the
all-seeing eye of the camera is not sub
| ject to such disadvantages. With a
string of kites it can be placed almost
directly above the spot which is to be
viewed, and will show the whole thing
in form ready for mapping.
! A fact that makes the camera, used
in this way. difficult antagonist to
combat is known to every gunner. 1t
! is this-that even at short range i: is
next to impossible to hit so small an
object high up in the air, with no other
object near by which to gaugeit.
1t is possible to fly kite at sea at all
times, even in dead calu1, for the ordi-
nary speed of a vessel creates sufficient
breeze. The view obtained from the
lookout man on a man-of-war extends
about ten miles. BY sending a camera
to the modest height OF 900 feet the
horizon line will be extended to 40 miles.
The eye of the camera can sweep this
horizon in every direction, the result
fixed on the plate can be developed in
Is minutes, and in this way the APP
proach of a vessel or a fleet can be
known for hours before it could be in
any other manner.
Another warlike errand on which the
Cuban insurgents have already an
nounced that they intend to employ the
kite is dropping dynamite and other
high explosives into an enemy's camp.
NOluiuS custer, Sdlu MI. l~uuy.
when asked him about the feasibility
of this scheme "In flying my kites l
have often liberated them to see what
they would do. and find that they will
travel for considerable distance. ac-
cording to the strength of the wind and
other circumstances, without a re-
straining cord The horizontal distance
of kite can be easily determined from
the length of the rope and its angle
with the earth; thus camp could be
exactly located, and enough dynamite
dropped into it TO blow a whole army
off the face of the earth if it CHANGED
to be there. Still, it is in navy signal
ling that l conceive the great new field
OF the kite to lie"
EARL MAYO.
Troops for Alaska.
The establishment of military post
on the Yukon in the pOld mir n o. re0ion