The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-08
GREAT KITE FLYERS.
Japanese of All Ages Indulge In the
Airy PastIme.
From Pearson's Magazine.

AOAA SUI hdSdNhtc.
Japan is now the real home of kite
flying, even more so than China. Here
young and old, rich and poor, fly kites
of every shape and size, from enormous
structures as large as a fair-sized room
to miniature paper representations of
dragon flies or bees. flown with gossamer
silk wound on spindles of ivory or tor
toise she'll
Japanese kites are adorned with long.
brilliantly colored paper tails, which
look very quaint and picturesque as they
trail in the adr, The kite is symbolical
OF soaring ambition and many other SEN
timents. When a child is born. little
kites are sent up by modest households,
to announce the arrival while great
families fly huge kites, with sails nun
dreds of feet in length, to celebrate
birthday. To lose a kite is considered
an omen of ill-luck.
During the late presidential election
kites were flown in every state by cleo
pioneering agents, as a novel means of
canvassng votes. Kite-fiying stations
were established in the large towns. and
big sums of money We're spent on out
fits, and in paying experienced men to
fly the kites
Not until quite lately, however, has the
kitehying craze reached Britain, but
when it arrived thousands were capt-
waited, and at the fashionable seaside re-
sorts kitefiying bids fair to Dust all 9TH
err pastimes. There are signs OF kite
boom of gigantic proportions m England
this summer.
Kite flying, like opium smoking, has an
insiduous fascinat ton. In almost every
case the man who buys a cheap box kite,
and flies it successfully once or twice,
becomes a hardened kite maniac. The
more expert he becomes the greater grows
the fascination 1t is pleasant enough to
send single box kite up in the air in
steady breeze, to feel the pull on the
string as you work the kite higher, and
to watch the little bright patch of color
against the deep blue sky-but there are
no words to tell of the JOY a man feels
when for the first time he sends strong
team of large kites on one string soaring
up to pierce the heart of cloud, so that
some appear above, some are lost III the
mist, and others are seen below, all toss
ing various ways in varying wind cur
rents. However a man may scott at kite
flying, he will yield to it's fatal fascina-
ton when he has once watched a kite
team mount to such a hight that the
leader is lost to sight in the brightness
of the sky.
One of the first things that the amateur
kite flyer discovers is that his precon-
ceived notion of wind is entirely errone-
Gus if he thinks, that is to say, as most
people do that wind consists of horizon
tai strata of air. The behavior OF a klte
in the air soon dispels this illusion, max
ing IL clear that wind consists OF vertical
currents, as well as of horizontal. Just
as one large wave is made up of innum-
cradle little waves, so a strong wave is
made up of innumerable little breezes,
moving at different speeds, in different
directions, upward and downward, back
and forth. These facts, which a kites
movements in the air disclose unmistak-
ably, account largely for the soaring ana
flying powers of birds who make lnstlnc-
tive use of the varying currents OF every
wind. soaring upwards on upward air cur
rents, and flying against the main cur
rent of the wind on a breeze moving
against the general drift.
For the amateur to enjoy scientific kite
flying on a small scale 1t is quite unheces-
sary for him to have an expensive outnt
of kites, windlasses, recording lnstIu-
ments, wire, with one or two good six
foot kites, box and Eddys, and little IN
genuity a great many scientific wonders
may be explored. The amateur, Tor IN
stance, may become his own weather pro-
pLet by sending up thermometers to the
thunderstorms, he may draw lightning
from the clouds, photograph in midair,
signal with flags, and make joyful cele-
bration by sending off fireworks high in
the air, so that they fall in flaming arc.
Kite photography has now reached such
a stage of perfection that it is possible
to send up camera and take a photo
graph of any particular building or OBJ
ject with but small margin of uncer-
tainty. Mr.. Eddy has arranged a contriv-
ance for taking complete views of the
horizon. He arranges eight or more cam
eras back to back on a circular platform,
send them high into the air with kites,
and snaps all their shutters by pulling a
string simultaneously Many successful
panoramic views of large cities have been
taken with kites flown from the tops of
high buildngs-dangerous vantage points,
however. Kites, by the way, flown from
the roofs at night, with colored lights at
tached to their strings have a very strik
ing effect as they hover over town. In
photographs taken in midair buildings
and scenes appear much nearer than they
are in reality, and there is often a GU
rious, mirage-ike effect, and the distant
landscape, which is invisible from the
ground, appears as though rising up into
the sky.
And now the kite has been used for fish
ing. The advantage of fishing from kite
IS that the fisherman may stand on the
shore whilst his bait is dropped far out al
sea also that timid fish are not scared by
seeing fishing rods or boats when an air
line is used. For kite fishing string kites
are flown, the string carrying a small pull
ley, through which the fish line runs. One
end of the fish line is held by the fisher
man on shore;t he other. which is weighted.
drops from the pulley as the ascent Is
made, and dips into the sea. At the mo-
ment when "A FISH snaps at the bait and Is
hooked, the fisherman feels the pull ON
his line, the kite is quickly hauled in, and
the FISH is dragged in at the same time.
Mr. Horsman has caught many a fine sea
fish in this way.
THE SANDAL CRAZE.