ver the spar buoy in Newark Bay. The lowest kite, a six-footer, was
hovering some distance inland from the shore, on a line from the shore
to Mr. Eddy's house (where the end of the line was anchored) measuring
fifty-five hundred feet by the surveyor's map. Taking two observations
from the two ends of this base line, Mr. Eddy's kite-quadrant showed
angles of thirty-five and sixty-six degrees; and these data, by simple
methods of triangulation, were sufficient to determine the altitude
of the kite, which was found to be five thousand five hundred and
ninety-five feet--or something over one mile. The kites were seen by
hundreds of persons during the fifteen hours that they remained up,
the experiment coming to an abrupt end at ten o'clock that night by
the blowing away of the two upper kites in the increasing wind. The
escaped kites disappeared in Newark Bay, along with three thousand
feet of the line.

[Illustration: KITE-DRAWN BUOY.

Invented by Prof. J. Woodbridge Davis. This buoy lacks the steering
appliances of the one shown below, and travels simply in a line with
the kite that draws it.]

Much interest attaches from a scientific point of view to experiments
designed to test how great an altitude may be reached by kites; and
for a year past Mr. Eddy has been working in this direction for
the Smithsonian Institution, the hope being that he will ultimately
succeed in sending kites two miles above the earth's surface.
Professor Langley has been following these experiments with great
interest, and has furnished Mr. Eddy with a special quality of silk
cord which, it is believed, will give better results in meteorological
observation than the ordinary hempen twine or rope. The great
difficulty that Mr. Eddy finds in the way of making his kites reach
great altitudes, is the pull on the cord, which increases greatly
as the kites rise higher. It is probable that a tandem of fifteen or
twenty big kites, reaching to a mile above the earth's surface, would
exert a pull of one hundred pounds; while at a height of two miles
they might, Mr. Eddy thinks, exert a pull of three hundred and fifty
pounds; and at a height of three miles, a pull of seven hundred
pounds. However great the pull, it is essential to successful flying
that the man in control be able to let out or reel in the main line
with great rapidity, and it is evident that a dozen men could not by
hand alone accomplish this if the kites were sent as high as might
be.