to measure exactly the amount allowed.

[Illustration: THE EDDY TAILLESS KITE.

Front view, showing how the line is attached.

A storm-flyer.--The diamond-shaped figure in the centre is an opening
made to lessen the wind pressure.]

Those who wish to make many kites will do well to buy thin manilla
paper, as wide as possible, having the dealer roll off for them seven
hundred or eight hundred feet, say a yard in width, which will insure
a cheap as well as an abundant supply. For strong winds and large
kites it is best to use cloth as the covering. It should be sewed to
the frame, and, if carefully put on, will do service for years. Silk,
of course, is the ideal material; but its costliness puts it beyond
ordinary means, and common silesia, such as is used in dress linings,
is almost as good. Whatever the material, the kite should be fortified
at the corners by pasting or sewing on quadrants of paper or cloth,
so as to give double thickness at the points most liable to injury.
A finished six-footer should not weigh over twenty ounces, if covered
with paper; or twenty-five ounces, if covered with cloth. Mr. Eddy has
made a six-footer for calm flying as light as eight ounces.

HOW TO SEND UP A KITE.

There is only one way to learn the practical art of kite-flying, and
that is to begin and do the thing yourself--with many mishaps and
disappointments at the outset. One of Mr. Eddy's practices when
sending kites up in very light winds or in an apparent calm, is to
reel out two hundred yards or so of cord in a convenient open space,
leaving kite and cord on the ground until ready to start. Then, by
taking the cord at the extreme distance from the kite, and beginning
to run with it, he gets it quickly into the upper air currents, which
are always stirring more than those at the surface. It is sometimes
necessary to run for a considerable distance before the kite reaches
a sustaining current; but a real kite enthusiast will not mind taking
trouble; indeed he had better abandon the whole business if he does.
It is worth noting that even in a dead calm a kite may be kept up
indefinitely as long as the flyer is willing to run with the cord at
the rate of about five miles an hour.

In flying kites tandem there is always to be guarded against the
danger of a breaking of the cord. Few people realize how hard a
pull is exerted by a series of kites well up in the air. A strain of
twenty-five or thirty pounds on the cord is not