“Then I must give up my intention of trying to raise the kite above the clouds,” said Tom. “Although you may not be able to raise any single kite to the altitude you may desire, it is easy to accomplish your plan by a series of kites; the string of the first being attached to the back of the second, and so on.” “How, papa? I do not exactly understand you.” “Your kite,” said Mr. Seymour, “is now as high in the air, as the force of the wind is capable of raising it; suppose you were to fix the end of the string you hold in your hand to the back of another kite, would not this second kite ascend as high as your first, by the same force, and your first kite therefore rise to double the altitude it is at present. In like manner you might attach a third kite, and so on.” “Now I comprehend it; and I should much like to try the experiment,” said Tom. “You shall certainly witness the effect I have described; but you must provide yourself with some stout string, for the force which the kites exert when thus arranged, is greater than you can easily imagine; indeed I question whether you would be able to hold them,” observed his father. Mr. Twaddleton here informed the young party that he had himself witnessed a carriage containing three persons that had been drawn along the road by kites, at the rates from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. “I have seen the account of it,” said Mr. Seymour, “and if I remember right, the principal kite was preceded at the distance of about 120 feet by a smaller pilot one, which served to direct it away from any obstacles, such as trees, houses, &c. with which it might otherwise have come in contact.” “But how was the pilot kite made obedient to the will of the driver?” asked Louisa. “By means of strings so attached to it that its surface was easily made to alter its angular position,” answered Mr. Seymour. “If my twine should snap,” said Tom, whose attention was suddenly drawn to his kite from a slight unsteadiness in its motion, arising from a gust of wind, “we could easily recover it, that is one good thing; for it is hovering over the open field at the end of the heath.” “If you imagine that the kite, under such circumstances, would fall upon the spot directly under it, you are much deceived: recollect that, if the string should snap, the kite would be abandoned to two forces, those of the wind, and its own gravity; and you will perceive that, under such circumstances, it could not obey either of them, but would fall in an intermediate or diagonal direction. This fact will be rendered apparent by the annexed diagram. B A may be supposed to represent the force and direction of the wind acting upon the kite, and B D those of its gravity; then it is evident that, under the influence of these joint forces, it would describe the diagonal, and, for reasons already explained, that line must necessarily be the _curve_ B F.” [Illustration: Diagram showing arc of fall trajectory.]