450 IONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. OCTOBER, 1898
Nm YoTk.-The mean temperature was 52.0°, or 3.8' above normal; the highest was 90°, at Auburn on the let, and the lowest, 18', a t Bolivar and Franklinville on the ISth. The average precipitation was 4.92, or 1.50 above normali the greatest monthl amount, 8.94, occurred a t Easton, and theleast, 2.,5 a t Madison Barracgs.-R. 6. Allen. North Caroliim.-The mean temperature wac) 60.3', or 0.8 above normal; the highest was 90' at Fayetteville on the 3d and a t Rock- ingham on the 4th, and the lowest, 2l0, a t Highlands on the 27th. The average precipitation was 6.42, or 235 above normal; t h e greatest monthly amount, 18.49, occurred a t Linnville, and the least, 3.26, at Lumberton.- L! l? non Hemnania. North Dakota.-The mean temperature was 38.6', or 3.8' below normal; the highest was S 4 O , a t Ashley and Forman on t h e 1st. and the lowest, So, a t Fort Yates on the 25th. The average precipitation was 2.3i, or 1.41 above normal; the greatest monthly anionnt, 6.20, occurred at Milton, ancl the least, 0.30, a t Glenul1in.-B. H. Bronaon. Ohio.-The mean temperature was 54.1', or about 2.0' above normal; the highest was 9 6 O , a t RIilligan on the 4th, and the lowest, SO', at Cambridge ancl Levering on the 2Sth. The average precipitation was
3.72, or 1 ti8 above normal; the greatest monthly amount, 7.87, occurred a t Elyria, and the least, 1.76, a t Hedges.-J. Warren Smith.
Oklahoma.-The mean temperature was 60.1': t h e highest was lln', at Waukomis on t h e 2d, and the lowest, 21', a t Fort Reno on the 23d, at Anadarko and Wagoner on t h e 06th, and a t Norman on the 30th. The
average precipitation was 1 .R i ; the greatest monthly amount, 5.38,
occurred at Wagoner, and the least, 0.48, a t Anac1arko.-J. I. Widmeyer.
Oregon.-The mean temperature was 49.5', or 1.6' below normal; the highest was 84'. a t Langlois on the 16th, and the lowest, Il', at Burns on the 3cl. The arersge precipitation was 2.01, or 1.06 below normal; t h e greatest monthly amount, S.51, occurred a t Bay City, and the least, trace, at Barns.-B. 8. Pngue. Pennsylva~iia.-The mean temperature was 53.8', or 3.7' above nor- mal; the highest was !Eo, at Derry Station on the 4th, and the lowest,
ZOO, a t Hollidaysburg, Shinglehouse, Smethport, and Somerset on the 28th. The average precipitation w:is 5.20, or 1.96 above normal; the greatest monthly amount, 3.63, occurred a t Wellsboro, and t h e least
2.36, a t Wi1kesbarre.-T. 3'. Townaend. South Dakota.-The mean temperature was 4 2 .7 O , or about 4.0' below normal; the highest was SS', at Chamberlain, Hotch City, and Pierre on the lst, ancl the lowest, 2' below zero, a t Rochford on the 25th. The average precipitation was l.S, or about normal; t h e greatest monthly amount, 4.20, occurred at Flandreau, while none fell a t Forest
City.--8. V. Glenn. Tenneesee.-The mean temperature was 57.6', or about normal; thc
iighest was 93O, at Pope on t h e 5th and at Covington on the 6th, and he lowest, 20°, at Erasmus on the 2Sth. The average precipitation was 4 34, or about 2.00 above normal; the greatest monthl amount, $30, occurred a t Oakhill, and the least, 0.9S, at Covington.-5. C: Bale. Teme.--The mean temperature, determined by comparison of 36
itations distributed throughout the State, was 1.0' below the normal. T'he temperature was about the normal over the panhandle, and there was a slight deficiency over t h e western portiona of the State and a
<enera1 deficiency, ranging from about 1.0 to 3.0 over the eastern or ions, with the greatest deficit in the vicinity of Tyler. The higfesi was 104', at Fort McIntosh on the 1st ancl a t Lampasas on the 2d, and "he lowest, 23O, at Mount Blanco on the 26th. The average precipi- .ation, determined by comparison of 37 stations distributed throughout the State, was 0.89 below the normal. There \vas a slight excess in
z few localities over the central purtion of the State, while there was
R general deficiency elsewhere, ranging from 1.00 to 3.39, with the rreatest deficit along the east coast. The greatest monthly amount 5.60, occurretl a t Huntsville, while none fell a t several stations.-1. d Cline. Ulah.-The mean tem erature was 47.0'; the highest was 90' at St. George on tho E t h , a n z the lowest, 3', at Loa on the 211. The aver- iLge precipitation was 0.67; the greatest monthlv amount, 2.40, occurred a t Tooele, while none fell a t several stations.LJ. H. Smith. Virginia.-The mean temperature was 5S.4', or about 1.0' above nor- mal; the highest was 90°, at Farmville on the 4th, and the lowest, 3l0,
mt Blacksburg on t h e 98th. The average precipitation was 6.21, or 3.04 above normal; the greatest monthly amount, 12.01, occurred a t Stanardsville, and the least, 3.52. at Warsaw.-E. A . Emna. Washington.-The mean temperature was 49.l0, or about 1.0' below normal; the highest was 79', a t Kennewick on the l4th, and the lowest, ll', a t Waterville on t h e 16th. The average precipitation was 2.79, or about normal; the greatest monthly amount, 11.01, occurred a t Clearwater, and the least, trace, at Fort Simcoe and Water- ville-G. N. Staliabury. Wiemm'n.-The mean temperature was 45.2', or 1.3' below normal;
the highest was 82', a t Grantsburg on t h e 2d, and t h e lowest, So, at Hartford City on the 27th. The average precipitation was 4.01, or 1.82 above normal; t h e greatest monthly amount, 5.80, occurred at White- hall, and t h e least, 1.34, at h'orth Crandon.-W. M. Wileon. Fyonzing.-The mean temperature was 39.7'; the highest was S?',
a t Fort Laramie on the lst, and the lowest, 4', at Labarge on the 20th. The average precipitation was 0.96; the greatest monthly amount, 2.25, occurred at Fort Yellowstone, and the least, 0.10, at Big piney.- W. 8. Palmer.
- -
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
A RECORD OF SOME KITE EXPERIMENTS.
By WILLIAM A. EDDT, Bayonne. N. J. (dated December 5, lSQ8).
My first experiment with a kite was in 1863, when with
another boy I tied a lantern to the tail of an ordiuary kite a t
night. The lantern was soon extinguished by the rapid mo-
tion of the kite tail, but it did not occur to me to suspend
the lantern from the string helow the kite. In 1887 I hearcl
of the life-saving use of the kite for towing buoys ashore, in-
vented by J. Woodbridge Davis, of New York, and while look-
ing up the subject, I read an account of the experinients of
E. Douglas Archibald, of England, published in Nature, in
1886. In a copy of the Pall Mall Gazette sent to me in 1896
or 1897 from London, Archilsald is recorded as having taken
a kite photograph in 1S86. I am yet without knowledge of
Archibald's method of suspending his camera, but one of his
kite photographs which I saw a t Blue Hill Observatory when
I first flew my kite there on .Jdy 30, 1894, revealed the fact
that his camera pointed straight downward. The view was
dated 1888. 111 the Loncloii article mentioning Archibald's
kite-photograph, AI. Batut. of France, is credited with a kite-
photograph in the same year. Wenz, of Paris, seems to have
taken up the suhject of kite-photography in 1800 or 1891.
He has recently sent to nie, care of Blue Hill Observatory, a
clear kite-photograph, not titled, but evidently of the Seine
in Paris, for which I shall send him two of my own of the
Capitol a t Washington, one taken by hand from the roof of
the Coast Survey Building, and the other with the camera
suspended from the kite cable about 300 feet above the roof.
The European kite photographers seem to have taken map
views, leaving the writer to take his first perspective view
from kites on May 30, 1895, a t Bayonne, N. J.'
In 1890 I began with tail kites of the ordinary pattern and
'To this catalogue of dates of kite work t h e Editor may add that in the spring of 1885, a t the conclusion of a series of balloon ascensions for meteorological purposes made for the Army Signal Service by Prof. S. A. King, of Philadelphia, an adclitional ascent was made for special military purposes. Photographic apparatus was carried, and pictures taken from t h e balloon, although not very successfully. Mr. Eddy states that some striking photographs were taken a t Winsted, Conn., about 1855, by an aeronaut whose name is unknown. As Professor King has devoted his life to the practical utilization of the balloon in every imaginable way, it will be interesting to add the following extract from a recent letter from him:
" I n my scrap book I find a print of my first photographic experi- ment. * * * I t was during the month of August in lSG0. The attempt was made at Providence, R. I., and Mr. J. W. Black, of Boston, was t h e photographer. I n October following, Mr. Black and myself ascended from Boston and succeeded in obtaining two fine views of the central portion of the city, each view containing features of historic interest. An article in the Boston Herald referring to the experiment is dated October 16, 1860, and mentions it as taking place on the pre- vious Saturday. On the 4th of July, lS93, Mr. W. N. Jennings ac- companied me with photographic apparatus and succeeded in obtain- ing the three views of Philadelphia which have been widely distributed and are, undoubtedly, the best views ever taken from a balloon." Copies of these magnificent photographs are at the Weather Bureau; they were evillently taken instantaneously with a very superior lens, and give perspective views, as distinguished from the vertical projec- tions or map views. Photographic views from balloons for military purposes were taken during the war of 1661-65, but we do not know that any special benefits resulted.-ED.
~~
__ __
OCTORER, 1898. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 46 1
soon found that the sag of the kite cable was a serious ob-
stacle to altitude in raising a self-recording thermometer, in
which I have since found that I was preceded by Wilson and
Melville, 1749, and by Kew Observatory later. In 1883-4
Archibald had, as I gathered from the account in Nature, at-
tached the line of the upper kite to the back of the kite be-
low it, and had thus made a chain of two kites in tandem.
I a t once tried a dif-ferent method, and, on May 9. 1591,
reached an estimated altitude of about 4,000 feet with 5 hexa-
gon tail kites, each kite moving freely with its individual
line lifting the sag of the main line. I had, previously, 011
February 4, 1891, made my first self-recording thermometer
ascension, using a Hicks U thermometer suspended from the
kite cable as detailed in the American Meteorological Journal,
July, 1891, when I began to experiment with tailless kites.
On November 7, 1893, after having reached great heights in
1892, I passed my first triangulated mile of altitude, using 9
tailless kites from 2+ to 6 feet in diameter. Had I used t,he
same diameter of line all the way to the top, the weight of the
line might have broken it, aside from wind pressure, hit I
used a t the top strong and very thin thread, with small kites
exerting a light pull. This caused the maximum pull a t the
earth to be only 18 pounds. In hauling in this line about 9,
p. m., the top line, with 2 kites, was swept away, and proba-
bly disappeared in Newark Bay. The wind velocity a t the
New York Weather Bureau station was 8 to 13 miles per hour
from the east.
I have so far taken about 400 kite photographs, nearly all
of which are perspective views. Following are dates of my
first mid-air photographs from kites in different localities for
purposes of permanent record :
Bayonne, N. J., May 30, 1895; Blue Hill Observatory,
August 20, 1895 ; New York, September 25, 1595 ; Portland,
Me., August 19,1896; Boston, Mass., August 25,1896; Elmont,
L. I., September 7, 1896; Philadelphia, Pa., May 15, 3897;
first simultaneous mid-air photographs from two cameras at
New York June 5, 1597 ; State Camp, Peekskill, N. Y., June
20, 1897 ; State Camp, Sea Girt, N. J., July 35, 1S97 ; Wash-
ington, D. C., September 8, 1897; Reading Pa., June 8, 1898;
Statue of Liberty, New Tork Harbor, October 27, 1898.
As to experiments on atmospheric electricity with kites,
my first spark was drawn from copper wire, festooned to the
kite cable, a t Bayonne, N. J., October 8, 1892, followed by a
large number of spark observations since that date. I found
by measurement that the altitude of the collector when the
first bpark was drawn was closely related to the humidity of
the air, and I drew curves showing the altitude of the col-
lector as related to surface humidity a t the earth, using wet
and dry bulb thermometers with the Weather Bureau tables.
I n dry air I had to send the collector to a height of a t least
600 feet before an appreciable spark resulted. The elcctric
action can be traced with considerable certainty, because the
frequency of the spark as related to the spark gap exactly
corresponds to the electric intensity aloft. There is a rela-
tion between this spark frequency and. the approach of cloude
and local storms, especially as related to, the formation of
rain, which I hope to discover before long. My first indoor
electric spark or flash of light through an incandescent glohe
from the kite wire occurred a t 6:42 p. m., November 37, 1896.
The spark was strengthened by two Leyden jars and by glass
cylinders coated with tin foil, and by insulated coils of wire
wound around soft iron. McAdie lighted an incandescent
globe during a thunderstorm by kite wire in lSS5 or lb92
a t Blue Hill Observatory, but mine differed in that the cnr-
bon filament of the incandescent globe was broken before
trial, on purpose, causing the kite wire spark to leap across n
space in the vacuum.
On November 1, 1898, under a clear sky, I sent an electric
collector into the air within about 100 feet of the Statue of
Liberty, New York harbor. The first spark was drawn a t
11:15 a. m. with the collector about 200 feet above the sur-
Face of Liberty Island, and about 100 feet below the top of
the torch of the statue. When I carried the kite wire, sup-
ported by 3 paper kites 6 feet in diameter, to within about 30
feet of the statue, an immense mass of bronze, the electric
sction vanished. Other experiments on November 1, 3, and
4, proved that the statue did not appreciably af-fect the air
iu this respect beyond a distance of 100 feet from its surface.
Upon carrying the wire within 70 feet the electric action
zltnost ceased. I hope to define more closely this electric in-
Hnence later by triangulating distances and timing the sparks.
On August 4, 1894, I used several of my kites to raise a
meteorograph a t Blue Hill Observatory. A Richard thermo-
graph, giving also barometric pressure, had been remodeled
by Fergusson a t the expense of the observatory, and was
lightened by the use of aluminum. Messrs. Clayton and Fer-
gusson gave me every possible assistance. Mr. Rotch was
then in Europe, but Mr. Clayton had previously granted me
permission to try the first kite meteorological experiments
there, which were conducted entirely a t my own expense.
This meteorograph, the first one in the world ever lifted by
kites, reached a height of 1,400 feet, and it brought back to
the earth, a t timeta, an admirably clear record.
The Fergusson meteorograph just alluded to had carried out
my suggestion of January 3, 1894, as puhlished on page
453, Vol. X of the American Meteorological Journal, entitled
“Weather map data a t the height of 5,000 feet,” in which I
say:
It is clear that light meteorological instruments can be raised to a height of 5,000 feet by mertnsof improved, tailless Malay kites. * * * An aneroid barometer, an IJ-shaped Hicks thermometer and an ane- mometer, all self-recording, can be so made that their combined weight shall not exceed onepound.l
I brought niy kites to the Blue Hill Observatory, and the
meteorograph was ready for use shortly after my arrival,
when I a t once made the ascension of August 4 described in
the previous paragraph.
The first kite telephone message, as pointed out by Fergus-
son in MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, August, 1898, p. 366,
with the kite wire extending over houses and trees, was suc-
c~ssfnlly received by me a t Bayonne, N. J., on December 5,
1S96, the voices being heard clearly. Mr. H. C. Bradley, of
the Lighthouse Service, near Boston, had suggested to me a t
Blue Hill Ohservatory in 1891, the possibility of listening to
the sounds of the upper air by means of a telephone sent
aloft. This would be of use in studying the audibility of fog
signals. I tried this experiment late in December, 1896, but
1 could not hear, owing to a defective megaphone receiver
and the roar of the wind againet both the megaphone and
kite cable, but I have improvements under way which may
enable me to sucreed soon.
My first rain kite reached a height of 591 feet on November
4, 1893, and remained aloft from 2 to 5 p. in., while the wind
velocity at the New Tork Weather Bureau station was from
18 to 20 milee per hour. On August lS, 1S96, a self-recording
thermometer aloft passed through a heavy shower a t Port-
land, Maine, the kites remaining aloft, and subsequently dry-
ing in the air. The fall of temperature was from 7 l 0 to 61O.
My first aerial camera obscura, which I named the vista-
scope, ascended to a height of about 300 feet on the kite cable
on August 15, 1897, when the sails of moving yachts and the
roofs and sidps of distant houses were visible to those lying
011 the groulld and looking upward with a powerful field glass
into the dark cavity of the camera obscura. On November
12, 1897, my first crossbow aeroplane was shot from the kite
In 1593, at the Columbian Exposition, I found that the title “ Malay ’, was incorrect as applied to my form of kite, but I did not try to correct this usage until several years later.
452 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. OCTOBER, 1898
cable aloft, landing more than 1,000 feet away. It was fired
a t night, but a burning saltpeter fuse, attached to the arrow-
head, traced its path in the darkness.
My first use of kites of specific size with which to measure
the wind velocity by means of a pull on a spring balance, as
compared with the record of the anemometer a t a similar
height a t the New York Weather Bureau station was made
early in 1894, but was elaborated with many classified obser-
vations on December 18, 1897.
My first self-illumined, single plane kite ascended March
26, 1898, with the lighted lantern within six inches of the
surface of the kite. My first simnltaneous kite tempera-
tures were taken a t New York and Bayonne, N. J., April 9,
1898. Mr. Henry L. Allen operated the kites a t Bayonne
and I operated those in New York. (See MONTHLY WEATHER
REVIEW, April 1898, p. 161.) The United States flag was
first brilliantly illuminated by colored fire, also suspended
in mid-air near the flag on April 30, 1898. My first dynamite
messenger war kite ascended under wind pressure on April
2, 1898, and the first shooting-etar war signal lantern was
released a t a height of about 900 feet, and deecended by
gravity down the kite cable a t 8 p. m., June 17, 1898.
Prof. S. P. Langley, in March or April, 1894, sent me a grant
from the Hodgkins fund for the purpose of experiment with
silk cord in reaching a great altitude with kites. My experi-
ments with silk cord, which extended over more than a year,
demonstrated that while silk was very strong for its weight,
about twice as strong for its weight as conipared with steel, as
demonstrated by Professor Thurston, of Cornel1 University,
yet its tensile strength was too unequal owing to fraying or
attrition of its surface, and in my report to the Smithsonian
Institution I recommended the use of flax with a steam en-
gine for winding in the kite cable. The steam engine a t Blue
Hill Observatory was established by cooperation with the
Hodgkins fund, steel wire being used, that standing next to
silk in tensile strength, as related to its weight. Steel wire
was used as kite cable by Archibald in 1884, as described in
Nature, in 1886.
Since about five miles of wire were run out a t Blue Hill Ob-
servatory to reach 11,494 feet above the summit of the hill on
August 26, 1898, with 149 square feet of kite surface, i t seems
to me that a t great heights the increasing wind velocity with
height may not quite compensate for loss of pressure due to
rarefaction of the air. Important estimates remain to be
made in this direction.
On July 28, 1898, by telegraphic orders from Gen. A. W.
Greeley, I sent 26 of my kites and other apparatus to New-
port News, Va., to de~nonstrate in Puerto Rico, experimentally,
the value of kites for photographing the enemy’s fortifica-
tions. The report of Col. W. A. Glassford, who has charge
of the apparatus, has not yet reached me. I have, however,
heard indirectly that my kites have been successfully used
for military flag signaling in Puerto Rico.
THE EFFECT OF PROXIMITY TO THE SEA ON THUN-
DERSTORM PERIODS.
By HERXAN D. STEARNS, A8EOChte Profensor of Physics, Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal.
In a paper on “Thunderstorms and unstable equilibrium in
the atmosphere ” (Meteorologische Zeitschrift, April, l895),
Prof. Wilhelm von Bezold has given a number of reasons for
expecting a difference in the daily and yearly thunderstorm
periods when inland observations are compared with those
made on or near the sea.
Von Bezold accepts Molin’s division of thunderstorms in to
the two classes : Heat and cyclonic thunderstorms. The heat
thunderstorms ar6 regarded as due to the breaking up of a
condition of unstable equilibrium in the atmosphere ; the
resulting rapidly ascending current forms the necessary
thunderstorm condition. The cyclonic thunderstorms ac-
company the general cyclonic storms and find their condition
i n the ascending current a t the center of the cyclone.
Three causes for unstable equilibrium in the atmosphere
are cited: (u) overheating of the lower layers of the atmos-
phere, first mentioned by Reye; (b ) overcooling of the higher
atmospheric layers, first pointed out by Prof. Mr. M. Davis;
(c ) a sudden change of state in the atmosphere, such as a
sudden condensation of water vapor or a sudden freezing of
suspended water.
The overheating of the earth’s surface on hot, still summer
afternoons accounts for the well-marked summer afternoon
maximum shown by inlacd observations. The wind and the
cooling influence of the water prevent so marked a summer
afternoon maximum on the sea.
Unstable equilibrium due to overcooling of upper atmos-
pheric layers is not so easily accounted for, because the
necessary condttion for rapid cooling would seem to be either
wind or cloud, the wind to introduce cold air from other
regions, the cloud to produce cooling by rapid radiation from
its upper surface. But the wind itself would prevent a con-
dition of unstable equilibrium, and a cloud is usually caused
by the ascending current of a cyclone, which would likewise
prevent an unstable condition. The cooling due to the cloud
would, however, cause an increased velocity in the ascending
cyclonic current, and hence would increase the probability of
a cyclonic thunderstorm. This phenomenon would be most
frequent in the case of the low-hanging clouds over the moist
air above the sea and the coast on winter nights. The result
would be an increaee in the number of winter-night cyclonic
thunderstorms on the sea and the coast.
The so-called supersaturation of the atmosphere with water
vapor would (if this phenomenon takes place in the free
atmosphere) be more probable on the sea than inland, because
of the greater probability of the presence of dustless air, and
would he most likely to occur over the tropical sea, with its
great evaporation. The sudden condensation of this vapor,
accompanied by the resulting ascending current, would make
a thunderstorm probable.
Unstable equilibrium due to the overcooling of water sus-
pended in clouds and the thunderstorms likely to occur on
the sudden freezing of this water are evidently as probable
on the sea as on the land, and would generally be winter-night
phenomena.
Hence, Professor von Bezold concludes that winter and night
thunderstorms, compared with summer and afternoon thunder-
storms, should be much more frequent on the sea and the coast
t,han inland, but that this effect can scarcely be expected in
the case of seacoasts where the paths of the cyclones are gener-
ally from the land to the sea, as is usually the case on east
coasts in our latitude.
The work of Messrs. Mohn and Hildebrandson on Norway
and Sweden and of Dr. Meinardus on the open sea show a
general agreement with the above theory, as do, also, other
more or less complete reports for different places.
At the suggestion of Professor von Bezold, who permitted
me to use the excellent libraryof the Meteorological Institute
a t Berlin, and who, with his associates, showed me every kind-
ness, I have tried to add something to the work already pub-
lished. My work has been confined almost entirely to the
yearly period of thunderstorms, and the results appear in the
tables below. The tables are followed by the curves showing
graphically the monthly percentages in such cases as afford a
basis for comparison.
ICELAND.-COAST STATIONS.
The material is taken from the yearly Danish reports. The
observations for one station in August, 1893, are wanting.