Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-27
SOUNDING THE ATMOSPHERE
What the Government Is Doing in Explor-
ing the Air

The depths of the sea and the secrets they
hold have been explored by certain of the Coz
ernments scientists for generations, but it Is
only in comparatively recent years that other
of the Governments scientific workers have
turned their attention upward and have begun
to sound, with kites and balloons, instead of the
lead, the almost limitless ocean of the atmos-
phere. In order systematically to advance these
explorations of the air. which is the great Pan
dora's box of the weather, the Weather Bu-
reau Is Just now completing the installation of
elaborate kite and balloon handling equipment
for upper air Investigations at it's station near
omaha, Neb.
The Governments upper air work begun
at the old Mount Weather observatory in Vir-
ginia nearly ten years ago. Because, however,
moving storms in their early stages the Vir-
ginia station has been abandoned and the work
has been transferred to the vicinity of Omaha,
where the disturbances first become well de-
veloped after the disrupting influence of the
Rockies are left behind.
The balloon work in the West was got
under way much in advance of the kite-fying
activities since the equipment of the signal
service at Fort Omaha for producing hydrogen
gas for inlatons has been placed by the War
Department at the service of the Weather Blu
reau. 1t has been necessary to install COM
plete Rite-handling plant, however and this has
been done on forty-acre farm secured for the
purpose about twenty miles west of Omaha.
The tract is high, level and free from timber.
In the very centre of 1t has been erected a re-
volving reelhouse not unlike the revolving room
of astronomical observatory. This structure
can be turned, therefore, with the wind, and
and wind in the miles of fine piano wire which
the Government kite fiers substitute for the
small boys cord. Electricity has been called TO
the assistance of the Weather Bureaus experts,
and will operate the reel since by electrically
driven mechanism, any desired speed can easily
and quickly be attained. To furnish the needed
power for this purpose and for the machinery OF
the well-equipped carpenter shop in which tho
scores of kites will be manufactured the Gov
ernment is installing electric generating
plant driven by gasoline motor and it is only
the setting up of this machinery that is lacking
to bring the new plant to completion.
When kite-hynE operations are got under way
they will not be confined as is the small boys
sport, to the blustery months of spring, but
will extend through the seasons year in and year
out. Box kites will be used and they will be
sent aloft in teams" of from six to nine a new
kite being attached whenever the weight of the
wire begins to drag.
In the first kite are placed the instruments,
the carrying of which aloft is the object of the
whole elaborate plan, and all of the operations
are carried on within 1t. These Instruments
weigh between two and three pounds and by
clockwork record on revolving cylinder varia-
tons IN air pressure, temperature humidity and
wind velocity. Such records, secured in the
past, have been invaluable to the Weather Bu-
reau in various ways, and with the improved
facilities in more important area even more
valuable results looked for.
While kites furnish an easy and inexpensive
means for the making of observations in the
first few miles above the earth's surface they
cannot reach the really high attitudes. In ex-
ploring the highest point to which man has
ever been on mountain peak in aircraft the
scientists of the, Weather Bureau have made
use of what has the appearance OF an over
grown toy balloon of the sort dear to the hearts
of children The devices, called sounding bal
looms, are made of the purest thin rubber OBJ
tainable, and when inflated with hydrogen gas
are round and about yard and a half in diam
eter. When released with recording instrument
attached the balloons shoot rapidly upward and