*Modern Kite Balloon.* It should not be supposed that the improved type of observation balloon now in use in such large numbers provides any unusual amount of ease or comfort, since it is also prey to the wind and does a great deal of swinging about as well as jerking when the wind is more than 15 or 20 miles an hour. But it has been improved to a point where the wind not only serves to elevate, instead of depressing it, but also to steady it. The new type. Fig. 25, is technically known as a kite balloon, because, in addition to the appendages attached to the bag itself for steadying purposes, it is equipped with a tail to assist in keeping it heading into the wind. This consists of a number of bucket-shaped pieces of heavy canvas attached to the tail cable by bridles so as to catch the wind and hold it, thus placing a heavy strain on the cable and preventing the balloon from swinging violently. As is the case with practically everything used at the front, the technical name of the new type of balloon is prominent by its absence. It is a _Drache_ (kite) to the Germans and a "blimp" to Tommy Atkins. Both its shape and attitude when aloft bear a close resemblance to a huge sausage, so that the term "sausage" is used by all the belligerents in common to a large extent. A side view of an American type is shown in Fig. 26. [Illustration: Fig. 25. Head-On View of Modern Kite Balloon, Showing Details of Tail Buckets _Copyright by Central News Service, New York City_] It will be noted from Figs. 25 and 26 that the suspension of the basket and the appendages attached to the balloon at the rear hold it in a position which is roughly the equivalent on a large scale of the curve of an aeroplane wing. It has both camber and an angle of incidence, so that the wind serves to elevate it instead of beating it down. This lifting effect is further increased by tubes of large diameter, open at the forward end only and curving around the end of the gas bag at the rear. (It is also equipped with an air balloonet, the same as a dirigible.) The wind enters the lower end of this tubular member, which is in a line with the longitudinal axis of the balloon, but it must pass around the curve at the end of the gas bag before it can fully inflate it, so that it performs the double function of increasing the lift and steadying the balloon, though the latter is its chief purpose. The basket is suspended quite a distance below the gas bag and has accommodation for two observers. Like scores of other inventions that the Germans were the first to utilize on a large scale in the present war, the kite balloon was not a German creation but was originally developed in France. [Illustration: Fig. 26. American Kite Balloon of Latest Type Ascending _Copyright by Committee on Public Information, Washington, D C._]