Healthful Sports for Boys | Page 7

paper, which must be pasted so as to present the side of greatest resistance to the wind, else it will soon be blown off. The tail band is simply a loop fastened to the sticks at the bottom so that it will hang below the kite, and balance it when it ascends. The belly-bands for support and steering--in the latter case two lines are used--must never be attached below the central cross-piece.
Boys often find fun in sending "messengers" up the strings to the kites. After the kite is up a good height, round pieces of colored paper with a hole in the center and a slit by means of which they are slipped on the string, are sent up. They travel with the speed of the wind till they reach the kite, where they stop. If too heavy, or too many, the messengers may get the kite out of balance.
A messenger has been sent up 6,000 feet, or over one mile. That is the height to which American scientists have sent kites with thermometers and barometers attached, so as to record the elevation and the temperature.
THE HARGRAVE, OR BOX KITE,
is something new and hitherto unheard of in the kite line. Rigidity and strength, without too much weight, are the prime essentials of the Hargrave. It may be made by a boy with a knack for mechanics in the following way: Take eight stiff, slender pieces of bamboo, eighteen and three-quarter inches in length, such as are sometimes used for fishing poles. These pieces must be of uniform weight and length, and as nearly alike as possible. Next cut six sticks, each eleven inches long, and as nearly alike as possible. These are for the middle uprights and end stretchers. After finding the middle of the longer sticks, lash them together in pairs by means of stout waxed thread, or light brass wire. Notch the ends of the sticks and make the spread between A and C just eleven inches. This will give you four pairs of crossed sticks. Next take one of your eleven-inch uprights, and bind it to the two pairs of cross-sticks. Take the other eleven-inch upright and fasten the other two pairs of cross-sticks in the same way.
This done, cut two spines, or connecting rods of bamboo, each thirty inches long and as nearly alike as possible. Next, with waxed thread, or light wire, bind the two spines over the ends of the eleven-inch stretchers. The spine must fit like the top of a letter T over the stretchers and be square; that is, at right angles with the stretcher. Each end of the spine must project beyond the uprights five and one- half inches; that is, the ends must each be five and one-half inches long, which leaves nineteen inches between points named. Bind the other four stretchers to the ends of the sticks. Now string the frame so that all the sticks, except the diagonals, shall be at right angles, or "perfectly square," as boys say. This done, paint all the joints with glue.
The frame when finished should measure 11 x 11 x 30. This is the measure for each of the two boxes or cells, which should have eight inches between. Cover the frame with a strong, light cloth that will not stretch, and sew it on so as to form two boxes covered at the top, bottom and ends. The two broadsides of each one are left open to receive the wind. On the bottom boom, at or near the edge of the cloth cover, fasten a small brass ring for a belly-band. If the foregoing be well done, you will have a kite on the principle of a flying machine, and you will be up with the times.
Kite String must be considered. In a light wind and with an ordinary kite, good, strong twine answers all purposes, but with large kites and a stiff breeze, the best string is a twisted linen line. Learn how to tie knots that won't come undone, and take care not to cut or blister your hands in letting out or hauling in.
TAILLESS KITES
are fast superceding the old-time kind, and they are quite as easy to make and are much easier to manage. Here are directions for making it: They can be made in different sizes and flied tandem, from twenty to hundreds of feet apart. The longitudinal stick should be of strong spruce, sixty inches in length and about three-eighths or one-half inch in width and thickness. It can be of any size, if these proportions are maintained. The cross-piece should be a similar stick and of equal length. When in position it is slightly bent, say four per cent, of its length. The frame should be of light spruce, the same size as the cross-pieces.