films made in strips about an inch and a half wide, and bearing a row of holes on each edge, through which the teeth of wheels were projected for moving the strip at the required speed, with requisite stops. All kinetoscopic pictures are now taken on such films, and their manufacture has become a considerable industry. The photographic films sell for about 12 cents a foot, and are the most expensive portion of an outfit for exhibiting the pictures. From 50,000 to 165,600 pictures are required on a film to supply an hour's exhibition, the latter figure being the number for pictures one inch in width. Although the pictures have to be stopped in transit 46 times a second, yet the speed with which they are moved on the drum is actually 26 miles an hour, exclusive of the stops. Kinetoscopic pictures were first exhibited in the familiar nickel-in-the-slot kinetoscopes, and kinetoscopic parlors were established in many large cities, where a variety of scenes was kept on exhibition in different machines. At this time no method was provided for exhibiting the pictures in an enlarged form on a screen. The kinetograph served to take the pictures and make the record for exhibition. It is a form of photographic apparatus having a camera capable of taking 46 views a second, and it makes the record or series of pictures on the kinetoscopic films, these being afterward finished like other photographs, and often colored by hand. The kinetograph is not, however, in any sense an exhibiting machine. As a consequence, no sooner were the machines marketed and declared a popular success than a small army of inventors set to work to devise means for exhibiting the pictures in enlarged form on a screen. One of the first to come before the public was the eidoscope, devised by Woodville Latham, and exhibited on Broadway, New York, in 1895. The kinetoscopic pictures were passed through the front of a magic lantern, which projected them on a white screen, The pic tures thus obtained were interesting, but so shaky and irregular as to give a continually blurred effect to the views. A little later the eidoloscope came out, and was placed on exhibition in a New York theater. The films for this machine are made continuous, and are wound on two spools, one giving off the film as the other winds it on, provision being made for a regular and even speed of the traveling film. It was regarded as a great success when this machine produced a satisfactory reproduction of a drill of Troop A of the National Guard, in Van Cortland Park, in the summer of 1896. Another machine that has come prominently before the public for exhibiting enlarged kinetoscopic pictures is the vitascope. This is Edison's machine, the name chosen meaning, literally, the exhibition of life. The cost of perfecting it is stated to have been about $20,000, and it was reconstructed several times before it assumed its present form. In the first model a shutter was Just used, as in the kinetoscope; but it was found that the action of the shutter had much to do with producing the blurred effects observed in the enlarged reproductions. The shutter was therefore abandoned, and an arrangement of an are light and lenses was provided, which operated satisfactorily. The vitascope as perfected has a small camera lens in front for projecting the view on a screen. behind the lens is a rectangular frame of the size of the pictures to be reproduced, serving to confine the margins of the picture on the screen to the proper limits. The prepared film is passed directly in front of this frame, mechanism being provided for carrying it along with the required 46 stops a second. Behind is a large lens, and immediately behind this an arc light of about 2,000-candle power. An electric motor is employed to carry the film with its train of pictures, and as each picture passes the frame, behind the small camera lens, the fight from the arc lamp, passing through the large lens, projects the picture through the smaller lens upon the screen with a magnifying power as great as 600 diameters. One of the most serious difficulties overcome in the construction of the vitascope was the protection of the film of pictures from melting under the great heat encountered in the focus of the powerful arc light. The problem was solved by placing an electro-magnet in front of the frame over which the film traveled, so suspended near a small dynamo that the magnet is active whenever the film is stopped, and draws it out of focus; but when the current is turned on to start the film in motion the same movement withdraws the current from the magnet, and the film returns to its place in the focus, where it is not in danger of being melted as long as it is in motion. The biograph is a machine similar to the vitascope, and has been used in numerous theaters in the United States in giving a variety of short views of moving scenes. An express train running at sixty miles an hour, fire engines on their way to a fire, children in a pillow fight, a pickaninny's bath, and a great variety of similar scenes involving rapid action have been successfully introduced, and have proved very popular. The cinematograph is another similar machine, which achieved considerable notoriety in 1897, as being the medium used to display the kinematic pictures illustrating a prize fight. This was the longest series of pictures ever exhibited continuously, their display occupying an hour and a half, and the results were fairly satisfactory, though it was found necessary to stop the exhibition when about half concluded, in order to afford opportunity to the observers to rest their eyes, which were unpleasantly affected by the vibration of the views on the screen. This vibration is present with all the machines used to exhibit enlarged kinetoscopic pictures. It is the result of the magnifying of the minute vibrations set up in stopping and starting the travel of the films 46 times a second. The vibration is not so serious when the films are new as it becomes after a little time, when the holes in the edges of the films become a little worn through repeated travel over the teeth of the carrying wheels. A very little wear in these holes allows the films to shake in proportion to the amount of play or lost motion in the holes, and this shake is exaggerated on the screen several hundred times. One of the most singular results producible with kinetoscopic pictures is obtained by exhibiting them in reversed order from that in which they were taken. In other words, the films bearing the pictures are run backward through the vitascope or other exhibiting machine. Take, for instance, a view of a man eating a plate of chicken, with vegetables, gravy, etc. When it is presented backward, the observer sees a man seat himself at a table, wipe his mouth, and pick his teeth. Before him is a plate empty but for a few chicken bones. He begins with a fork to extract portions of meat from his mouth, and with the aid of his knife to build these up on the chicken bones. In the same way the vegetables, etc., are removed from his mouth to the plate, until a well-filled dish stands before him, covered with chicken gravy, which he removes to a special dish by the aid of a large spoon into which the gravy jumps from the plate in the most astonishing manner. A variety of other scenes are rendered equally peculiar and ridiculous by this reversing process, as horses running backward with a fire engine or a reversal of the process of a barber shaving a customer. The mutoscope is an instrument similar to the kinetoscope for exhibiting the pictures on a small scale for observation through a peephole. A number of other machines have been devised and employed for exhibiting the views through a peephole or in enlarged form on a screen, but none of them differ essentially from those described; they are practically either kinetoscopes or vitascopes. Mr. Edison's inventions in the display of his kinetoscopic pictures did not cease with the kinetoscope and the vitascope. With the active aid and co-operation of W. G. L. Dickson, he developed the kineto-phonograph and phono-kinetoscope, crowning triumphs of ingenuity in this field, which have not been generally exhibited. These mechanisms, as the names imply, are designed to reproduce sounds with sights, so as to preserve all the physical impressions received by an individual who observes a scene of life and action. The kinetograph records, and the kinetoscope exhibits to the eye, the movements of living or other active objects; the phono-kinetograph records both the sounds and motions, while the phono-kinetoscope exhibits a duplication of both the sounds and motions originally given. The principle of the phonograph is of course the one applied to and associated with the kinetograph and kinetoscope in accomplishing this result. The chief difficulty to be overcome in bringing them into operation as one machine was the harmonizing or synchronizing of all the mechanism, so that the sights and sounds recorded and reproduced were absolutely sure to be given in unison. The system is peculiarly suited to the reproduction of events occurring on the stage of a theater, and a special kinetographic theater was set up for making the experiments. Here it was found necessary to group the actors close together and expose them to a very strong light. A kinetograph and a phonograph are then placed so as to bear upon the group, and are electrically connected, so that the cylinder of the phonograph and the spools of the kinetoscopic films may travel in exact unison. The continuous action of the players is caught by the kinetograph readily enough, but it is necessary that their utterances be directed toward the phonograph to secure a good record of the sounds." KITE FLYING. Within half a dozen years kite flying has developed from an amusement suited to boys to a scientific pursuit eagerly followed by researchers in the fields of aeronautics, meteorology, and military tactics. The student of aëronautics has found the kite even more worthy of study and experiment than the balloon; the United States Weather Bureau has devoted time and money to the development of kite flying in order to obtain observations with meteorographs at high altitudes; the military tactician has been interested in them as furnishing means of signaling and making observations; and the photographer has recognized in them a new field for his efforts. Lawrence Hargrave, of New South Wales, deserves the greater part of the credit for transforming the kite from a toy to an instrument of science. To his investigations the world is indebted for the cellular or box kite, whose lifting power is much greater than that of any flat-plane kite, and which may be made in a great variety of forms. Knowledge of the laws that govern the wind and the action of aeroplanes has been much increased by his development of cellular kites. Hargrave, in originating forms of kites, was obliged to proceed almost wholly on the plan of guess and try. At that time the writings of Langley, Chanute, Maxim, and Lilienthal, describing their investigations in the work and action of the wind, were not available, and Hargrave was obliged to jump at conclusions of his own and test them by practice, under all the uncertainties arising from having to do with conditions little known with sticks arranged in the shape of a Latin cross, with a tail of twine and paper-has also a modern development in the Malay kite, especially as improved by W. A. Eddy, of Bayonne, N. J. The Malay kite, as built by him, and shown in Fig. 2, has the cross-stick very near the top and made with an outbow or curve. It is tailless, as are most of the recent forms of kites. A tail simply serves to give balance to a kite, which is better obtained by a more perfect construction. The reason for the extreme shortness of top shown in the Eddy Malay kite is that the wind pressure on the under surface of an inclined kite plane is much greater at the top or forward end, because this first FIG. 1. TWO-CELLED HARGRAVE KITE. catches the wind and sustains the effort of turning it in a downward course. Variant forms of the kite have been devised by Octave Chanute, J. B. Millet, C. F. Lamson, C. W. Marvin, J. Woodbridge Davis, Dr. A. B. Johnson, Alexander McAdie, and other investigators, many of the designs approaching air ships in their im posing size and construction. The experiments of Chanute, Millet, and Lamson have been with a view toward constructing a successful aeroplane FIG. 2.-EDDY MALAY KITE. FIG. 3.-TRAPEZOID KITE. flying machine, while Marvin's experiments were made in his capacity as meteorologist for the Weather Bureau. His trapezoid kite is shown in Fig. 3. All these experimenters make use of cellu lar, double-plane, or multiplane forms, which they arrange in a variety of ways. The first cellular kite was probably the Japanese single-cell toy kite shown in Fig. 4, consisting of four sides arranged rectangularly, with the bridle drawing from two corners, so that a V surface was presented to the supporting air. This form has a modern representative in a two-celled kite made by the Weather Bureau, which was tolerably efficient. But the V under surface, while convenient of construction, is not generally regarded with as much favor as those having flat or slightly curved planes. The tubular form of cell has been experimented with, and has been proved to be decidedly inferior. The rectangular two-celled form is most generally approved, though three and four celled designs have shown considerable efficiency. While much variety of detail is found admissible in construction, the later designers appear to keep in mind the necessity FIG. 4. of using several planes so separated as JAPANESE to secure lifting effect without interference with each other-that is, without making it possible for one plane to receive the wind useful to another plane, or to turn the wind so as to lessen the lift of another plane. SINGLE CELLED Experiments with parakites, or kites flown in tandem, several being attached one after another to a single cord or cable, have developed possibilities in high flying, and in lifting heavy bodies, which were previously found impossible, owing to the restraining weight of the cord and the lack of stability in a single kite. G. T. Woglom, a jeweler of New York city, Messrs. S. P. Fergusson and H. H. Clayton, of Blue Hill Observatory, Milton, Mass., and Mr. Eddy are among the most persistent experimenters with parakites, and Woglom has published a book detailing his methods and experiments. He makes use principally of the Malay kite, as does also Eddy. The others named use both Malay and Hargrave kites on the one line. Lieut. H. D. Wise, in a series of experiments near New York in 1896 and 1897, also used both forms, preferring the Hargrave for lifting. In flying a train of Malay parakites, a leading kite is selected capable of being raised perhaps 700 feet in a moderate breeze. When this is up 200 or 300 feet, a second kite is started, the method of attaching differing with the strength of the wind at the time. If the wind is light, the second kite is elevated separately on a line about 75 feet long, which is then attached to the main line. If the wind is strong, the second kite may be tied by the tail end to the main cable, the first kite furnishing the lifting power. After the second kite has dangled an instant, its surface comes to the wind, and it is thrown up into correct position, and begins to sustain the line. Other kites are attached in the same fashion, stronger cord being used with each additional kite; and in this way as many as a dozen are sent up. Woglom asserts that there is no limit (barring accident) to the number of kites that may be sent up in this way, The kites or parakites as they are usually called when flown in tandem-exercise the ordinary kite function only in being elevated; when in place in the line, they exercise the functions of aeroplanes in maintaining themselves in the air. The arrangement of Malay kites as parakites is given in Fig. 5. Lieut. Wise found the cellular kites of a slightly modified Hargrave pattern best adapted for use as parakites for lifting a considerable weight, as a man. He placed the smaller ones first in his line, gradually increasing the area. He first experimented with a dummy, weighing 30 pounds. This was easily carried up by two large kites, in a 17-mile breeze, the lifting surface of the kites being 112 square feet. The dummy was elevated about 800 feet, but it was shown that the parakite was too unstable for elevating a man, as the dummy was shaken about in a most violent manner, being sometimes swung entirely over the main cable. Three Hargrave kites were used by Wise in his first endeavor to raise himself with a parakite. The surface area of the kites was 202 square feet, and the wind was blowing 22 miles an hour. The cord was wrapped on a windlass, firmly pegged to the ground, and about 300 feet of sevensixteenths manilla rope, with a breaking strain of 1,250 pounds, was run out on the ground and tied to the largest kite, which was to be the lowest in the series, bearing the direct strain of the weight. Sixty feet of lighter rope, of a breaking strain of 750 pounds, was used to connect the second kite, tying it to the back of the first. The third and smallest kite was then launched in the air as a leader, and tied to the back of the second kite. Wise occupied the seat attached to the large kite, and signaled the men at the two lower kites to present them to the breeze for launching. The initial strain was so great that the lower frame of the large kite was pulled out, and the other two kites broke loose and flew away, but were caught and hauled down, and were broken by contact with buildings. This experiment taught Wise that, while he had plenty of lifting power, he lacked control FIG. 5.-A PArakite of of his apparatus. On Jan. 22, 1897, he made his first successful ascension, using four large Hargrave kites with a total lifting area of 312 square feet in a 17mile breeze. This time the kites were raised in two separate pairs, and were united after being elevated. He readily attained an elevation of 42 feet, and might have gone higher, but deemed it best not to court accident. The total weight lifted from the ground was 229 pounds, 59 pounds being the weight of the kites, 20 pounds of ropes, and the remainder the dead weight of the man and the chair. Halfinch manilla rope was used to retain the kites. MALAYS. On May 4, 1895, Woglom raised an American flag about 2,000 feet above the Washington Arch, in New York city, with a parakite composed of six large Malay kites. In November, 1894, he raised a parakite to a height of 1,500 feet in a gale blowing 50 miles an hour. This is about the limit of wind pressure in which it has thus far been found possible to send up a parakite with safety. Eddy introduced his kites at Blue Hill Observatory in 1894, and many attempts were there made to reach high altitudes for the purpose of securing meteorological records. Previous to this, the best record at Blue Hill was 1,500 feet. In August, 1895, 9 Malay kites were sent up to a height of 1,900 feet which was a very unsatisfactory result to the observers, as the kites had a lifting surface of 220 feet and the wind was strong. When it reached 30 miles an hour many of the kites, which were of paper, were torn to pieces. The strongest pull shown on the line was 112 pounds. A systematic attempt was then made to improve every part of the mechanism and apparatus; and this work was so successful that by 1896 a record of 7,500 feet was recorded, the distance being calculated from the meteorograph to the surface of the ground on the hill. This record was increased to 8.740 feet in October, 1896, with 7 Malay and 2 Hargrave kites, having an area of 170 square feet. On Sept. 19, 1897, the record was again broken, and a height of 9,386 feet above the hill was recorded, the elevation above sea level being 10,016 feet. Seven Hargrave kites were used, and 4 miles of wire run out. The ascent was begun at noon, the highest point being attained at 4.17 P. M. A large part of this success was due to the substitution of steel piano wire for cord as kite string. The wire has two or three times the strength for the same weight as has the cord, and presents but one sixth as much surface to the air, so that the sag is greatly reduced. Both Hargrave and Lamson made personal kite ascensions before Wise. Hargrave used a tandem of 5 of his 2-celled kites, and Lamson used a multiplane kite of his own peculiar construction. Hargrave ascended only 15 feet, but Lamson ascended 100 feet, June 20, 1896, at Portland, Me. He had previously elevated a 150-pound dummy, on which occasion something broke and the apparatus fell to the ground, but it came down so gently as to give confidence that the danger in a personal ascent was slight. Within the past year or two others have made similar ascents, among them being Lieut. Baden-Powell, of the Scots Guards, Great Britain. As a means of signaling, Octave Chanute's multiplane kite has been tested by J. E. Maxfield, of the United States Signal Service, and tests for the War Department were made by Lieut. Wise at Governor's Island. By an arrangement of red, white, and green lanterns, suspended on either end of a bamboo rod, with cords and pulleys for reversing the position of the rod, Wise made signals with the regular army code at a height of 500 feet. In the daytime a similar feat was accomplished with signal flags. For operating the international code, flags tied to a halyard in the proper order were simply run up to a pulley below the kite, one set being displayed, while another was being tied on. For night signaling with the international code, a long bamboo rod was run up, having fixed to it sticks of different colored combustible substances, arranged in a predetermined order. These signals were arranged so that they would burn five minutes after hoisting, and were visible to a distance of fifteen miles. Wise is now experimenting with incandescent electric lights for night signaling, sending the current up on the inside of a cable and down on the outside, and employing a telegraph key to flash the messages, on the principle of a heliograph. Eddy has given more attention to photography from kites than any any other investigator. He has taken numerous photographs in New York city, Boston, and Bayonne, and succeeded in overcoming the numerous difficulties incident to operating a camera from a distance of several hundred feet, where it is subject to vibrations and shocks from a variety of causes. By arranging 8 or 10 cameras in a circle, with the backs inside, and suspending them in midair, he has obtained complete views of the horizon. He suggests that such an apparatus would be valuable in naval service, enabling the detection of an enemy below the horizon at a distance of 20 miles. In following out this idea of using the kite as a means of discovering that which is beyond the natural vision, Eddy devised what he terms a vistascope, a form of camera obscura, in which the image is thrown on a screen suspended from the kite, and viewed from below with a spyglass. In this manner he has viewed objects 2 miles distant beyond intervening hills. Eddy, in association with Dr. William H. Mitchell and Henry L. Allen, in December, 1896, succeeded in sending both telegraphic and telephonic messages over a kite line, without using electric batteries of any sort. Three kites, each from 6 to 7 feet in length, were sent up on one line to a height of about 1,000 feet. The cord was fixed to the ground with iron pins, and about seven in the evening a thin conducting wire and lantern were drawn up by a pulley suspended from the main kite line. The lantern, being used as a weight, was allowed to descend after a time by letting out the wire, and Dr. Mitchell, going to the lantern end and attaching telephonic instruments to the wire, was able to talk to Mr. Eddy over the line, no artificial electricity being supplied, the source being entirely the static electricity encountered in the higher atmosphere. Since the introduction of steel piano wire for kite lines, by Archibald, of England, in 1884, numerous electric shocks have been experienced by kite flyers. Steel is not a very good conductor, and Eddy, in 1892, tried a copper wire connected with a rectangular affair of tinfoil, which he sent up by his kites as a collector of electricity. He succeeded in producing numerous sparks. At the Blue Hill Observatory, in 1885, large silk-covered kites were tried, surfaced with tinfoil, and when they were sent up 1,500 feet, sparks were obtainable at the ground end at all times, under a cloudless sky. The experiments demonstrated that the electric voltage on the wire rose with the ascension of the kites, and diminished as they descended. During experiments made from the top of the Washington Monument, in Washington, D. C., potentials as high as 4,000 volts were obtained during thunderstorms, at periods just previous to lightning strokes. One operator, who handled the kite wire at the instant that a flash of lightning occurred nearly a mile away, was dangerously shocked. These and other experiments demonstrate that the upper air may be tapped at any time for electricity, which is probably generated by the stronger air currents circulating at the higher levels. Almost every experimenter with modern kites has found it necessary to manufacture his own kites, and experiment and try until the best proportions were found. Steel is perhaps the best material for the frames of large kites, but wood is so much more convenient that it is ordinarily used. Paper is generally discarded in favor of cambric or silk cloth for the planes. Pine or spruce sticks are commonly preferred, and for making a Hargrave box kite the following dimensions and directions are given: Sticks, inch square and 72 inches long, set 6 feet apart in one direction and 21 inches in the other; the stiffening and bracing are of fine steel wire, piano wire being the best, and the point of attachment for the bracing wires being about 10 |