The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-24
PROBLE EMS OF UPPER AIR
SCIENTISTS ARE AT WORK
Kites, Balloons and Other Means Used for Meteoro-
 logical Research.


 Smithsonian institution, Dr. A. Law renee Rotch, director of the Blue Hill meteorological observatory. just outside of Boston, by means of sounding bal looms has several times secured rec ords of temperature, pressure and air currents ten miles away from the earth. Other Investigators at Mount Weather, Bluemont, Va, have succeeded in ob- taining similar records at equally high attitudes, and the results obtained may furnish valuable in daily forecasting. In fact, the continuous recording of air currents at higher attitudes, where local conditions are comparatively ineffec- tice may soon be considered vitally nec- essary in accurate general weather pre- dtotions.
 The history of attempts to invade this atmospheric realm at great distance from the earth is interesting. As early as 1749 Prof. Alexander Wilson of Glas- gow attached thermometers to kites and flew them into the clouds. This is the first experiment of the sort on record It was only three years later that Benjamin Franklin, on this side | of the water, performed similar obser- vaticns, but with the far more start ling results pictured in every school boys history.
 Dr, Lawrence Rotch not long ago wrote for the Smithsonian institution the story of high altitude investiga- tons in this country. In speaking of researches into the upper air subse- quent to those of. Wilson and Franklin, he says; About 1887 there existed in Philadelphia an organization called the 1 Franklin Kite club, that flew kites for recreation Espy, the eminent meteror- ologist, was member, and he states that on those days when columnar 1 clouds form rapidly and numerously the kite was frequently carried up ward almost perpendicularly by col | umns of ascending air, a phenomenon l which is. often observed to-day Espy l calculated the height at which clouds should form by the cooling of the air i to its dew point, and then employed kites to verify his calculations of the 1 heights of the clouds. Both these methods are utilized in the measure ment of cloud heights at Blue Hill'
 Dr. Rotch continues: Kites were em- ployed to get temperatures of 100 feet or more above the Arctic ocean early in the 18th century, and in 1S47 W. R. Birt, of the Kew observatory, in Eng 1 land, flew a kite for the purpose of measuring temperature, humidity, wind 1 veocity, etc. In 1882 Dougas Archi- 1 bad, In England, revived the use of kites for meteorological observations and outlined a comprehensive scheme of exploring the air with kites, which 1 included almost all that had been done 1 since" Mir. Archibalds experiments, Dr. Rotch explains, were never com pleted, but his was the honor in 1887 of taking the first photograph from a kite, a method which Messrs. Dattlt and Wehz developed in France and Messrs. Eddy and Weglom in the United States. "In August, 1884," says Dr. Rotch, William A. Eddy, of New Jersey brought his kites to Blue Hill, and with them lifted a Richard thermograph which had been partly reconstructed oi oluminum by Mir. Ferguson, of Ehe ob- servatory so that it weighed about l.! pounds, to the height of 1,40O feet, and here the earliest automatic record o1 temperature was obtained by kite"
 It was couple of years later that Dr Rotch began his own experiments or an extensive scale. In January, 1897 the Smithsonian institution granted him a sum to work upon the problem O
 getting records of the properties ot
 the atmosphere at points far ava,
 from the earth. Kites were flown a!
 high as 11,00O feet, with instrument
 attached, but to do this an anchored
 steam engine had to be constructed anC
 strong piano wire used. Still late
 kites were sent up over 15,00O feet, ant 24 records secured from this height.
 In the meantime investigators in Eur
 ope had conceived the Idea of sending
 up what they called "balloon-sondes. These were rubber balloons of variou sizes, four or five to ten feet In dia meter, dilated with gas. To them wer
 attached small parachutes, with bas kets carrying self-recording instru : ments. As the balloon ascended ant atmospheric pressure lessened, the ba expanded until, reaching the limit o
 its tension, the rubber broke and re leased the parachute with it's preclou , burden. These iloated gradually to tn , ground to be picked up and returne for nominal reward.
 Theoretically it was supposed tn , rubber bags burst suddenly but eX 1, perlence showed that as the balloon ex
 banded the pores In the rubber opene gradually, allowing the escape of onl small quantities of gas. This enable some of the balloons to reach muc 5 higher attitudes than was at first hope $ for.
 At St. Louis, aided partly by th v Smithsonian institution, pr. Rbtch re 9 leased balloons of this sort properl I equipped ito ascertain the annual var : iation of temperature in the free ai f at great heights" Says Dr. Roteh
 Twelve balloons were dispatched i
 July, 1905, and all but two of the at
 tached instruments were recovered
 Their automatic records of bnrometri