e Cleats.]

[Illustration: Fig. 236. Hook on the Vertical Stick.]

[Illustration: Fig. 237. Double Hook.]

[Illustration: Fig. 238. Connection at Corner.]

For the 5-foot kite we used two sticks of hickory 3/8 of an inch wide,
1/2 an inch thick, and each 5 feet long. According to directions, one
stick was laid across the other at a point two-elevenths of its length
from the top. Two-elevenths of 5 feet is a little less than 11 inches,
and so we fastened on the cross stick 11 inches from the upper end of
the backbone. The sticks were not nailed together, because this would
have weakened the frame just at the point where it was under the
greatest strain. Instead we followed the professor's directions and tied
cleats to each stick, as shown in Fig. 235, so as to form sockets. Then
the sticks were laid across each other, each stick fitting into the
socket of the other, just like a mortised joint. A coat of shellac on
the bottom of each cleat glued it temporarily to the stick, after which
it was very tightly bound with fine cord. The stick and cleats were now
thoroughly shellaced. The end of each stick was tapered off to receive a
brass ferrule of the kind used on chisel handles. They can be bought at
any hardware store. At the end of the backbone we fastened hooks made of
brass, bent to the form shown in Fig. 236. The cross sticks were also
provided with hooks, but these were double, as shown in Fig. 237, so
that a hook lay on both the front and the rear side of the frame.

[Illustration: Fig. 239. Bending the Cross Stick.]

The frame was covered with a kind of cloth called "percaline." The cloth
was hemmed along each edge over heavy picture wire, and at each corner
the wire was twisted around a small solid ring of brass. The rings were
now slipped over the hooks on the frame and then the cross stick was
bowed back by fastening a wire to the rear hooks and drawing it taut.
Professor Keeler told us to tighten this bowstring until the distance
from the wire to the cross stick at the center was equal to one-tenth of
the length of the stick. As our sticks were each 5 feet long we
tightened the wire until the cross stick bowed out 6 inches, as in Fig.
239. The belly band of the kite was fastened at one end to the lower end
of the backbone and at the upper end to a wire hook at the juncture of
the two sticks. The hook was fastened to the cross stick by flattening
the ends and running them under the cord used for binding on t