El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-11-11

highest Of our mountains are in South
America and the Hottest of all IS
ACOncagua, which kisses the sky at
the altitude Of 22,S60 feet The high
est mountain in North America is
Mount Mckinley, which is a little
more than 10000 feet above the sea.
Uncle Sans highest kite has reached
a height OF 23,800 feet and his next
highest was 23lOO. Next TO these
flights the most successful has been
one near Berlin, where in 1908 a kite
was sent to height Of 1880 feet
and next to that was a flight at Blue
Hill, near Boston. where the kite ex-
tended only $500 feet above the
earth. TWenty-thTee thousand eight
hundred feet is considerably over four
miles, and it is about a half mile high
er than the top Of Mount Misu in
Peru, where is situated the highest of
all recording weather stations. That
station belongs TO Harvard college, and
il is connected with the great ObserTa-
tory at AreQuipas which lies on the
sides Of the Andes 1900 or $4,000 feet
below Misti is so high that no one
lives there, but automatic instrum ents
are placed on the top of the mountain
and from time to time are visited and
the records carried away.
Flying Weather Bureaus.
These kites Of Uncle Sam are flying
weather bureaus They float on the
wings Of the winds and explore the at
earth that a man could hardly go there
and come back to tell the tale. The
head kite is equipped with automatic
recorders. Tt has machines which note
the temperature humidity and other at
mOspheric conditions. Tt has a fOun-
tain pen which writes down the velOc-
fly Of the wind which blows IL to and
fro and ii is equipped with other in
struments so fine and so complicated
and yet so efficient that they make one
think of a great flying brain which I'm
Gle sam has sent alOft to explore This
brain is kept in an aluminium box
which might be called its skull, and
which is so protected that when the
kite falls 1T is not destroyed
T made a careful examination Of one
OF these kite skulls today and was
amazed at its workmanship. The instru-
ment which tests the humidity is a hu-
man hair Not a hair as coarse as that
Of an indians, but as fine and silky as
that Of a baby. In fact it is the hair
Of q WOman's head, and one selected for
its fineness and strength. The hair is
SO treated that all the oil is taken out
of it and IL records the changes In
moisture by its expansion and cOntrac-
ton When 1t strikes a rain cloud II
lOOsens and when IT reaches the dry
upper strata it becomes taut.
An then take the thermometer This
works also by expansion and cOntrac-
ton 1t is a little metal bowl with
liquid inside, and that Of such q ma
ture that it viii test the temperature
from 40 degrees below zero to 100 de-
grees above it, The thermometer in the
kite that reached the highest flight
recorded a temperature Of % degrees
below zero and this was sent up from
Mount Weather the 5th of August in
the face Of the hottest sun of the dog
days. The kite that went up in April
Of that year, reaching 25,10O feet,
recorded a temperature of IL degrees
below zero, so that suppOsing other
things to have been equal the differ
ence Of temperature in the zoo feet Of
these two kites showed a falling off
Of u degrees. The ink used for re-
cordiug such flights has to be carefully
made and the oil which lUbricates the