ings thus obtained is obvious from the
fact that fresh air-streams are constantly playing on the instruments.

A year or two later a totally dissimilar kite was introduced by Mr.
Lawrence Hargrave, of Sydney, Australia. This invention, which
has proved of the greatest utility and efficiency, would, from its
appearance, upset all conventional ideas of what a kite should be,
resembling in its simplest form a mere box, minus the back and
front. Nevertheless, these kites, in their present form, have carried
instruments to heights of upwards of two miles, the restraining line
being fine steel piano wire.

But another and most efficient kite, admirably adapted for many most
important purposes, is that invented by Major Baden-Powell. The main
objects originally aimed at in the construction of this kite related to
military operations, such as signalling, photography, and the raising of
a man to an elevation for observational purposes. In the opinion of the
inventor, who is a practiced aeronaut, a wind of over thirty miles
an hour renders a captive balloon useless, while a kite under such
conditions should be capable of taking its place in the field.
Describing his early experiments, Major, then Captain, Baden-Powell,
stated that in 1894, after a number of failures, he succeeded with a
hexagonal structure of cambric, stretched on a bamboo framework 36
feet high, in lifting a man--not far, but far enough to prove that his
theories were right. Later on, substituting a number of small kites for
one big one, he was, on several occasions, raised to a height of 100
feet, and had sent up sand bags, weighing 9 stone, to 300 feet, at which
height they remained suspended nearly a whole day.

This form of kite, which has been further developed, has been used in
the South African campaign in connection with wireless telegraphy for
the taking of photographs at great heights, notably at Modder River, and
for other purposes.

It has been claimed that the first well-authenticated occasion of a man
being raised by a kite was when at Pirbright Camp a Baden-Powell kite,
30 feet high, flown by two lines, from which a basket was suspended,
took a man up to a height of 10 feet. It is only fair, however, to state
that it is related that more than fifty years ago a lady was lifted some
hundred feet by a great kite constructed by one George Pocock, whose
machine was designed for an observatory in war, and also for drawing
carriages along highways.