From historical researches that have been stimulated by the recent practical applications of kites, it appears that their first use for scientific purposes was in 1749, when Dr. Alexander Wilson of Glasgow, and his pupil, Thomas Melvill, used kites to lift thermometers. Their kites, from four to seven feet in height, and covered with paper, were fastened behind one another, each kite taking up as much line as could be supported, thereby allowing its companion to soar to an elevation proportionally higher. It is related that "the uppermost one ascended to an amazing height, disappearing at times among the white summer clouds, whilst all the rest, in a series, formed with it in the air below such a lofty scale, and that too affected by such regular and conspiring motions, as at once changed a boyish pastime into a spectacle which greatly interested every beholder.... To obtain the information they wanted they contrived that thermometers, properly secured, and having bushy tassels of paper tied to them, should be let fall at stated periods from some of the higher kites, which was accomplished by the gradual singeing of a match-line." How the thermometers were prevented from changing their readings while falling to the ground is not explained. The account concludes: "When engaged in these experiments, though now and then they communicated immediately with the clouds, yet, as this happened always in fine weather, no symptoms whatever of an electrical nature came under their observation. The sublime analysis of the thunderbolt, and of the electricity of the atmosphere, lay yet entirely undiscovered, and was reserved two years longer for the sagacity of the celebrated Dr. Franklin." Hence it seems that Franklin's famous experiment of collecting the electricity of a thunder-cloud by means of a kite, performed at Philadelphia in 1752, was not its first scientific application, and therefore America can claim only the later and most remarkable development of this means of exploring the air.