Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-29

Ing Tn the water or the lake, and as he will be provided with life preservers and parachute he does not anticipate any serious results from such an acci- dent. Lieut.. Wise will probably make his ascent some time in September, and If he is successful the feat will be 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 the kite in war IS the camera. A few weeks ago Mr Eddy took the first picture ever made of government fortifeation with camera suspended from kite-string in midair. The kites were 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 3A 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 it, 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. Mir. Ed dy has taken many of them with his aerial apparatus by means of which he operates camera a thousand feet or more above the earth. It is the ap- plicability 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 Qualifications erected for their defense; it is contrary to the regulations for anybody to carry a camera inside any of the Qualifications 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 pie 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 it's rivals and
 
 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 ob- server from the fact of his being in the air in so exposed a position, and the piecemeal way in which the observa- tions 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. It is tlis-that even at short range it is next to impossible to hit so small an object high up in the air, with no other object near by which to gaugeit.
 It is possible to fly a kite at sea at all times, even in a dead calm, for the ordi- nary speed of a vessel creates sufficient breeze. The view obtained from the lookout man on 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 15 minutes, and in this way the ap- proach of vessel or fleet can be known for hours before it could be in any other manner.
 Another warlille 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.
 "Nothing easier" said MT. Eddy, when | asked him about the feasibility of this scheme. .'In flying my kites I 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 re- straining cord. The horizontal distance of a kite can be easily determined from the length of the rope and it's 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 chanced to be there. Still, it is in navy signal ling that conceive the great new field ot the kite to lie"
 EARL MAYO.
 Troops for Alaska.
 The establishment of military post on the Yukon, in the gold mining region of Alaska yvo11ld dot1btless have good