American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
Much experience with the kite-collector has convinced Mr. Eddy that
there is always in the air overhead, at all times of the year and
in all weathers, an abundant, practically a boundless, supply of
electricity. It has never yet happened to him to send his collector up
to even so low a height as four hundred feet without getting a spark
in his discharge-box at the earth. He has discovered, however, that
the greater the amount of moisture in the air, the greater is the
height to which he must send the collector before getting the first
spark. There is no doubt that large quantities of electricity might
be obtained by hoisting large collectors, supported by strong flying
tandems, to considerable altitudes, and drawing off the supply at
the earth by means of a system of transformers which would lower the
electricity from the dangerously high tension at which it discharges
down the wire, to a voltage that could be handled with safety. In his
experiments thus far, Mr. Eddy has discharged the copper wire leading
from his collector into a wooden box containing a pasteboard wheel
with darning-needle axle and tinfoil edges. The axle is grounded, and
the copper wire from the collector placed near the tinfoil periphery
of the wheel, so as to discharge its sparks through the intervening
distance, and by the shock cause the wheel to turn.
THE USE OF KITES IN PHOTOGRAPHY.
One of the most interesting applications of the kite, but a thoroughly
practical one, is its use in photography. This has been
entirely developed within the past year or two; indeed the first
kite-photograph taken on the American continent was one made by
Mr. Eddy's camera on May 30, 1895. Although some attempts in this
direction had been previously made in Europe, this was the first
clearly focused kite-photograph obtained. The previous ones had been
blurred, owing to defects in the devices for swinging the camera
apparatus from the kite-cord, and for loosening the shutter. Mr.
Eddy's apparatus will be better understood from the accompanying
cut than from any description. In a general way it is a wooden frame
capable of holding the camera, and terminating behind in a long stick
or boom, by means of which the camera is made to point in any desired
direction or at any angle. This is arranged before sending up the
apparatus, the boom being properly placed and held in position by
means of guy cords from the main kite-line. A separate line hangs
from the spring of the camera shutter, with which is also connected
a hollow ball of polished metal supported in such a way that it will
drop from its position, five or six feet through the air, when the
camera cord is pulled. The purpose of this ball is to allow the
operator on the ground to be sure that the camera has responded to his
pull and that the desired photograph has been taken. He is assured of
this, having given the pull, on seeing the flash made by the polished
ball in its fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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