The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-04-01
u. S. KITE EXPERTS
ENVY OF SMALL BOY
Get Data From Sky for Ma
tons Aviators.

washington, Neb.-The small boy
likely would view as the finest kind
of play the important meteorological
work carried on by the staff Of the
kite station at the Drexel observation
bureau here.
For from the kite house in the CEN
ter of an unobstructed 4O-acre field
kites as big as a woodshed are flown
on piano wire, sometimes six or seven
on a single strand, the highest quite
out of sight.
G. S. Ling, veteran government me-
teorologist in charge, has six assist
ants who devote all their time to kit
ing. Scarcely a dozen days a year
fail to see the kites aloft, where they
remain five or six hours.
Gets Data From Clouds.
The instrument carried up is called
a meteorograph. Weighing but two
pounds, this aluminium cylinder re-
cords wind velocity, direction, altitude,
humidity, temperature and the amount
of static electricity encountered. The
information transcribed from its re-
cordings is for use in future forecast
ing, for possible military flying infor-
nation In future years and for imme-
date information to- army and navy
mail aviators. To the latter daily in
formation has been furnished for sew
eral months, but no regular weather
forecasts are issued.
From the circular six-ton kite
house, which revolyes like an astro-
nomical observatory and has sliding
round doors, the kites are put up. A
large drum, bearing eight miles of pi-
ano wire, is operated by an electric
motor. The whole is insulated against
static electricity.
Unlike the small boys kite, with
which he must run few yards to get
it up, the weather kites are taken
down the field a short distance and
given a boost. The drum pulls the
kite into the teeth of the wind at a
speed of IL miles an hour and the
box kite scoots upward.
However, aloft few hundred feet
the kite begins to sag as it's load OF
piano wire increases. Additional kites
are then strung on at thousand-foot
intervals, each with its own lead wire
of hundred yards or so. As many
as half dozen kites soon dot the sky
each perhaps in different wind level
and each Juggling an opposite direction
from the main line But the load is
distributed and the top kite carries on
its work of supporting the meteoro-
graph.
Bear Weather Tales.
The kites are rectangular in shape.
Their greatest dimension is eight feet.
The corner struts are half-inch straight
grained spruce. The muslin covering
is drawn to drum-head tautness. The
only tails they bear are the weather
tales they bring down.
Frequently kite mile aloft breaks
away. Directed by label on the side
the finder usually returns the kite at
once. Only per cent of lost kites
fail to reappear. However, when the
wire breaks at the winch swishing
steel tail trails along with the fleeting
kites, playing havoc with rural phone
lines and fences.
Seldom is the wire hit by lightning,
but the static, which causes grief to
radio fans, frequently reaches 10000
to $4,000 volts on the WIRE 1t is safe
Iy led off through grounded escape
wire
Thirty-inch hydrogen-filled rubber
balloons are released several times
daily at Drexel Watched through
theodolites, their course is plotted, and
from this are deduced details of the
upper air strata
Drexel also provides kites for other
stations. Dahl Baxter, who has made
weather kites most of his life, oper-
ates the kite shop. Fifty-two COM
pleted kites fill the loft of a large
shop.