The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-10-01
I WEATHER KITE.
TO Be Used in Ascertaining the
Condition Of the Upper Air.
Attached to . Csptive Balloon It WIN
Aid tho weather Clerk In His OBJ
eervations-A Now Scion
tito Idea.

Inc metSOTOlO8lDAS A0vS e~~AAAAA 80
many years that some knowledge OF the
condition of the upper air will be very
valuable as an aid to weather pred1c-
ton. The upper air strata are pecuilar-
ly 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-
den calms. A captive balloon during
strong winds is apt to be disabled by
the variable pressure upon its immense
olobe of confined gas. The wind, II
yery powerful, may drive the tethercd
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
Ing dead calms 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 1t.
The Moore kite, as drawn, has tail,
which may ultimately be dispensed
with, as in the case of the kites devised
ty me in 1891, says the writer, Prof.
William A. Eddy, and used recently In
the Sunday World Photographic ex-
periments above New York. The tail
Kites used by me on February 4, 1891,
for probably the first thermetric KITE
observation in the world, were heXa-
conal, and carried upward very steep
string, almost equalizing the rerpen-
dicular ascending power OF the taaiiess
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,
fving 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.
/ 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 successful than
If he attempted to balance in the air
balloon tailless kite, because found
/, during hundreds of kite ascensions
that nobody knows what the wind will
| do next.
Since flat kites of light construction,
| in mild winds, require little tail, it
seems to follow that q 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 several
hours in advance of their appearance
en- the earth's surface. announced
| this theoretically in the American Me-
tcorological Journal for July, 1891, but
I had few observations from aloft in
support of it. and l thought then that
| il might have been due to coincidence.
| Since that time the elaborate expert
ments at the Blue Hill observatory in
August, 1895, have reaffrmed it. The
curves have been carefully worked out
at the observatory by H. II. Clayton,
! indicating that abnormal GOODNESS OF
he air aloft denotes the approach OF
| cold wave which soon reaches the sur
face. When the air rushes up Mount
| Washington or Pixies Peak it carries
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
| " compared with the surface tempera-
| ture.
Kites of light construction can main
tain themselves aloft six days in seven
at New York, and probably four days
| in seven at Cincinnati, where the wind
is light,-if night winds in both cities
ere included in the estimate. But
Prof. Moore's kite, il he uses gas would
doubtless make the record almost con-
tinuous. Since there is often plenty OF
wind aloft and none at the surface OF
the earth, the facts are only approxi-
mately known at present.-N. 7. World.