seized the cord and made it fast; and he was not
at all disposed to give up the kites when Mr. Eddy claimed them. There
is no property, indeed, so hard to prove and recover as a runaway
kite. For one thing, there is absolutely no telling how far a runaway
kite will sail before landing. Mr. Eddy estimates that when the main
line breaks, a kite well up in a twenty-five mile breeze will travel,
before alighting, a distance equal to twelve times its height from the
ground. This means that a kite straight over the Battery, in New York
City, and a mile in the air, driven by a stiff south wind, might
land in Yonkers if the cord broke. There is, by the way, an old-time
ordinance on the statute book, prohibiting the flying of kites in any
part of New York City below Fourteenth Street. This, however, did not
prevent Mr. Eddy from taking recently a series of unique photographs
(some of them are reproduced in this article), by means of a tandem of
kites sent up from a high building near the City Hall Park. The only
complication that resulted was a fierce contention among a crowd of
idlers and gamins over the possession of one of the kites, which came
down accidentally and lodged in one of the Park trees.

[Illustration: NEW YORK, EAST RIVER, BROOKLYN, AND NEW YORK BAY, FROM
A KITE.

From a photograph taken from a kite by Mr. W.A. Eddy.]

THE LIFTING POWER OF KITES.

A tandem of six or eight six-foot kites exerts a pull of thirty pounds
or more on the main line; but it must not be assumed that such a
tandem would lift and carry through the air a weight of thirty pounds.
The weight of thirty pounds would be carried a short distance; but
as the weight moved off, there would be a sudden lessening of the
resistance on the line, and so of the wind pressure against the kites,
which would soon cause them to sink. A tandem of strong kites in
a good breeze might be made to operate a sort of jumping apparatus
which, after being carried a short distance, would anchor itself to
the ground until the renewed strength of the kites lifted it up again
for another jump. But all kite experts are agreed that a kite's power
for lifting loads clear of the ground must be enormously increased
according as the distance to which the load is to be lifted is
increased. It would be possible, for example, to build a tandem of
kites strong enough to lift a man clear of the ground, supposing him
to be swung in a basket from the main line. This, indeed, has b