The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-22
KITE ANEMOMETERS.
New Experiments to Measure the We
lOcity of Wind.
New York Herald.

new YORK Herald.
William A. Eddy of No. 80 East Third
street, Bayonne, N. j., well known as an
expert in constructing and flying kites and
in aerial photography, some of whose birds
from kite strings hundreds of feet above the
streets, have been reproduced in the Herald,
has just completed a series of experiments
covering a period of several years, which
he thinks prove that his kites may be made
Of the utmost value to meteorologists and
navigatOrs. He believes that he has estab-
lished the fact that the pull of his kites on
their strings, indicated by a delicate
spring balance, accurately measures the
velocity of the wind, and he thinks too
that he has demonstrated by this means
that the wind velocity over wide region
is practically the same at a not very great
height above the ground, where the effect
of the irregularities of the earth's surface
upon the atmospheric movements are an
nuled.
The United States Weather Bureau, he is
satisfied, will shortly be brought to a reali-
cation of the value of his discovery as Chief
Moore, in his official report for 1897 to the
secretary of agriculture, just ISSUED, says:
Efforts will be made to establish about
twenty kite stations during the present MS
cal year"
using the pull of the kites to measure the
wind velocity he will make a decided saving
as compared with the use, Of extremely ex-
pensive thermometers. which have to be
lightened with aluminium 1 believe that he
will find that the wind velocity is change
able aloft only with an approach or recess
sion of several hundred miles toward or
away from a low or high barometric pres
sure and that this method of determining
the wind velocity will be valuable on board
ships as an indication of coming storms as
well as to flyers of all kinds of kites
throughout the world:
Mr. Eddy has compiled tables OF WIND We
locities as recorded by his kites ut Bay
onne which he has compared with the CT
fetal hourly records taken by the United
tower of the Manhattan Life Insurance
building in this city, which show star ling
similarity. The government instrument there
is fixed at a height of 326 feet above sea
level and while making his observation Mr.;
Eddy kept his kites at about three hundred
and fifty feet. He declared yesterday that
it is only necessary to know the size of your
kite, to compare its pull with the record at
a certain height of an thermometer, When
the kite instantly becomes a wind recording
instrument and q great factor of safety at
sea and along shore. ~
Dr. w H. Mitchell and Commodore Yer
rilye We're associated with Mr.. Eddy in car
rying out his experiments, which began IN
1893, when he sent up a siX-foot KITE anu
found that the pull was from four 10 SIX
pounds. Then he came to the Weather Bu-
reau in this city, eleven miles away as the
crow flies, and found that at the time OF the
experiment the thermometer recorded ten
miles an hour At trial the next day he
calculated the velocity at nine miles an hour
and came within one mile of the official
record in New York at the same hour. He
let the matter rest for a time. as he was fol-
lowing a line of study in atmospheric cleo
tricity but resumed it after time, and has
made observations at different seasons of
the year Following is table he obtained
SATURDAY. night at BayOnne: