 Scientific Kite-Flying by Cleveland Moffitt This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. On the Long Peninsula that separates New York Bay from Newark Bay, there is, among other things, a red house by an open field in which lives the King of Kite-Fliers. Everyone in Bayone, the town which covers this peninsula, knows the red house by the open field. For scarcely a day passes, winter or summer, that kites are not seen sailing above this spot. Sometimes a solitary hurricane-flyer, when the wind is sweeping in strong from the ocean. Sometimes a tandem string of seven or eight six-footers, each one fastened to the main line by its separate cord. And wonderful are the feats in kite illumination accomplished by Mr. Eddy, the King of Forsed, on holiday nights, especially on the 4th of July, when he keeps the sky ablaze with gracefully waving meteors to the profound awe or admiration of his fellow townsmen. If you enter the red house and show a proper interest in the subject, Mr. Eddy will take you up to his kite room, where sky-flyers of all sorts, sizes and materials range the walls, from the tiniest made of tissue paper to nine-footers with lath frames and oil-cloth coverings. Hanging from the ceiling is one of the queer Hargrave kites, which looks like a double box and seems as little likely to fly as a full-legged dining-table. Yet fly it will, and beautifully too, though by a principle of aeroplanes only recently understood. Then Mr. Eddy will show you the room where, with the help of his left-fingered wife, also a kite enthusiast, he spends many hours developing and mounting photographs taken from high altitudes, with a camera especially constructed to be swung and operated from the kite cord. Until one talks with a man like Mr. Eddy, though indeed there is no one just like him, one does not realise what a large and important subject to this of scientific kite-flying is. Many men of distinction have devoted years of their best energies to experiments with kites. Mr. Eddy himself as a scientist first, last and always. For the sake of a new observation he will send up a tandem of kites when the thermometer is below zero, or stand half a night at his reeling apparatus, getting records of the thermograph. Perhaps I shall do best to begin by giving some useful information to those who may contemplate constructing a modern scientific kite. The first thing that should be done by such a person, be he boy or man, is to rid his mind of all his preconceived notions about kites, for it is almost certain that they are incorrect. To begin with, the scientific kite has no tail. A few years ago people would have laughed at anyone who attempted to send up a kite without a tail. But the question is now no longer even open with the scientific kite-flyers, who not only send up tailless kites with the greatest ease, but do so under conditions which, to kites with tails, would be impossible, for instance in dead calms and in driving hurricanes. The tailless kite, sent from the hands of a master, will fly in all winds. It is true that kites with tails have given good results in experimental work, but the tails are annoying and an unnecessary weight and may better be dispensed with. Every boy has had the vexatious experience of sending up a kite in a light breeze with a tail made light in proportion, only to find that, on reaching stronger air currents above, the kite has begun to dive and grow unmanageable. Then, when he has taken the kite down and added a heavier tail, he has found the breeze at the ground insufficient to lift the extra load, and so between two difficulties has had to give up his sport in disgust. This is the one serious defect of kites with tails, that they cannot adapt themselves to wind currents of varying intensities, whereas the tailless kites do so without difficulty. And in tandem flying, which is the backbone of the modern system, the weight of a half dozen or more heavy tails would be a serious impediment to say nothing of the perpetual danger of the different tails getting entangled in the lines. How to Make a Scientific Kite It is important then to know how to make a scientific tailless kite, such as is used by the experts at the Smithsonian Institution or at the Blue Hills Conservatory near Boston, for it must not be supposed that kite flying is merely an idle pastime. It is a pleasure doubtless for boys, but it is also a field of serious experiment and observation for men. The information I here present, including practical directions as well as interesting theories, was obtained from Mr. Eddy himself and may be regarded as strictly accurate. It is much better for amateurs to begin with a kite designed to fly in strong winds, as it is a long and delicate task to learn to manage the variety with extra wide cross-stick meant for ascension in calms. The two sticks which form the skeleton should be of equal lengths, say six feet, and should cross each other at right angles at a point on the upright stick, 18% of its length below the top. This point of crossing is of great importance, and was only located by Mr. Eddy after months of wearisome experiment. He was misled in his earlier efforts at tailless kite making by the example of the Malay kiter-flyers, who are reputed to be the most skillful in the world, and who cross the sticks much nearer the middle of the upright one. In a six-foot kite, the two sticks, equally in length, should cross at about 13 inches from the top of the upright stick, and the same proportion should be observed for kites of other dimensions. At the point of crossing, the stick should be slightly notched and strongly bound together with twine tied in flat knots. Driving a nail or screw through the sticks to bind them weakens the frame at the point of greatest strain. As material for the sticks, Mr. Eddy has found clear spruce better than any other wood. Bamboo is bad because it bends unevenly at the joints. White pine is not tough enough, and cypress is both too brittle and too flexible. The hardwoods, like ash, hickory, and oak, are too heavy. In scientific kite-flying, even so small a weight as a quarter of an ounce may make all the difference between failure and success. All winds are broken by frequent brief intervals of calm, and a kite must rely on its lightness to out-ride these. Whoever contemplates going seriously into kite-flying will do well to provide himself with a store of suitable sticks by purchasing a straight-grained, well-plained spruce plank, free from knots, and having it soared on a circular saw into sticks five sixteenths and seven sixteenths inches in thickness, to be cut later into such lengths as he may choose. The two sticks, there are never more than two. Having been fastened firmly together, the cross-stick must be sprung backward, so that, when finished, the kite will present a convex or bulging surface to the wind. It might be imagined that a concave surface to the wind would be better, and indeed this has been tried. But it has invariably proved that with a concave surface the kite receives too much of the breeze and becomes quite uncontrollable. The amount of spring that must be given the cross-piece is in proportion to its length. Mr. Eddy's rule being to spring the cross-stick by means of a cord joining the two ends like a bow, until the perpendicular between the point of juncture of the two sticks and the centre of the cord is equal to one-tenth of the length of the cross-stick, or a little more than one-tenth, if the kite is to be flown in very high winds. It is of the first importance to keep the two halves of the kite on the right and the left of the upright stick perfectly symmetrical, and this is by no means an easy matter. It often happens in bending the cross-stick that owing to differences in the fibre and elasticity of the wood, one side bends more than the other with the result that the two halves present different curves and consequently unequal wind areas. To offset this difficulty, and also to strengthen the skeleton, Mr. Eddy's practice is to add a bracing piece at the back of the cross-stick, a piece about one-fourth of the length of the cross-stick itself, and of the same width and thickness. If the two halves of the kite are already quite symmetrical, he places this bracing stick with its centre directly even with the point of juncture of the two large sticks, its two ends being fastened with twine to the cross-stick, about nine inches on either side of the crossing-point. But if one half of the cross-stick shows a greater bend than the other, he places the longer arm of the bracing piece toward the side that bends the most, thus presenting a greater leverage against the wind on that side than on the other, and so equalising things. With the two sticks and the brace all thus properly in place, a supporting frame for the paper or cloth is formed by running not cord but fine picture wire over the tips of the sticks, notched to hold it in place in the ordinary way. Then, with a thin, clear paste made of starch, the paper may be laid on, care being taken to paste the edges so as to leave a certain amount of slack or looseness in the part of the kite below the cross-stick, so that each of the lower faces will present concave wind surfaces. To preserve the required equilibrium, it is important that the amount of looseness in the paper be equal on the two sides, and in order to keep it so, it is necessary to measure exactly the amount allowed. Those who wish to make many kites will do well to buy thin manila paper, as wide as possible, having the dealer roll off for them 700 or 800 feet, say a yard in width, which will ensure a cheap as well as an abundant supply. For strong winds and large kites, it is best to use cloth as the covering. It should be sewed to the frame, and, if carefully put on, will do service for years. Silk, of course, is the ideal material, but its costliness puts it beyond ordinary means, and common synesia, such as is used in dress linings, is almost as good. Whatever the material, the kite should be fortified at the corners by pasting or sewing on quadrants of paper or cloth, so as to give double thickness at the points most liable to injury. A finished six-footer should not weigh over 20 ounces if covered with paper, or 25 ounces if covered with cloth. Mr. Eddy has made a six-footer for calm flying as light as eight ounces. How to send up a kite? There is only one way to learn the practical art of kite flying, and that is to begin and do the thing yourself, with many mishaps and disappointments at the outset. One of Mr. Eddy's practices when sending kites up in very light winds, or in an apparent calm, is to reel out 200 yards or so of cord in a convenient open space, leaving kite and cord on the ground until ready to start. Then, by taking the cord at the extreme distance from the kite, and beginning to run with it, he gets it quickly into the upper air currents, which are always stirring more than those at the surface. It is sometimes necessary to run for a considerable distance before the kite reaches a sustaining current, but a real kite enthusiast will not mind taking trouble. Indeed, he had better abandon the whole business if he does. It is worth noting that even in a dead calm, a kite may be kept up indefinitely, as long as the flyer is willing to run with the cord at the rate of about five miles an hour. In flying kites' tandem, there is always to be guarded against the danger of a breaking of the cord. Few people realise how hard a pull is exerted by a series of kites well up in the air. A strain of 25 or 30 pounds on the cord is not uncommon, and not only the strength of the cord, but the way of attaching it is of great importance. There should be two strings, never more, fastened to the upright stick at its lower end and at the point of crossing, the upper length being about one third of the lower one, and the two being adjusted so that, when taught, the kite takes an angle of about 20 degrees with the ground, which means that the kite goes up almost straight overhead, the string making an angle of about 70 degrees with the ground. In sending up a series of kites to fly tandem, it is best to head the line with a small kite, three or four feet in diameter, and gradually increase the size until a diameter of six feet is reached for the one cent last. This arrangement makes it possible to hold the upper kites by lighter cord, the heavier kites being reserved for the half of the line nearest to the ground, and thus there is a material lessening of the load to be borne. The first kite should be well up, say 500 feet, before the second is attached to the line, but after that they may be sent at closer intervals, sometimes with only a few hundred feet between them, say 200 feet in light winds, and 500 feet in heavy winds. Each kite in a tandem should have a length of at least 100 feet of cord from the main line, and great care should be exercised in knotting fast the individual lines. The best way of starting a second kite, after the first is well up, is to pay out about a hundred feet of cord for the tandem line, attaching one end of this to the main cord and the other to the second kite, which is left lying on the ground back downward. Then pay out the main line evenly until the tandem line begins to lift. As the pendant kite is born higher and higher, it will swing for a while in a horizontal position, but will presently begin to flutter and sail sideways, and then finally come up more and more until the wind catches it and it shoots up like a bird into its proper position. In fact, once the first kite is securely up, the others will fly themselves by merely being attached to the main line as described. Of course, each fresh kite increases the pull on the main line, and the line must be made proportionately stronger as the tandem is increased. Runaway Tandems Mr. Eddy has had some remarkable experiences with escaping kites. One day at Bayonne, in July 1894, while he was flying a tandem of eight kites in a northwest wind blowing 18 miles an hour, the main line broke with a loud snap, and the kites sailed away towards Staten Island with the speed of an escaped balloon. One can scarcely conceive the rapidity with which a line of kites like this travels over the first four or five hundred feet after its release. An ice boat goes no faster, and one might as well pursue the shadow of a flying cloud as chase that string. At the time of the escape, the top kite, a four-footer, was up nearly a mile, and the other seven were flying at a good elevation. The consequence was that although, as invariably happened in such cases, they began to drop, the lowest kite did not strike the ground until it had been carried about a quarter of a mile to the New Jersey shore of the Kilvon Coal, which is half a mile wide at this point. Here, kite number eight, a six-footer, caught in a tree and held the line for a few seconds until its own cord broke under the strain and set the other kites free. This check had lifted the other kites, and they now flew right bravely across the water, not one of the seven wetting its heels before the farther shore was reached. Then the lowest of them came to the ground, in its turn, putting a brief check on the others. But its cord soon broke under the strain, and the six still flying went sailing over the trees of Staten Island, hundreds of people watching them as they flew, six tailless kites driving along towards New York Bay, the main line trailing behind over lawns and housetops. Then a queer thing happened. As the loose end of the main line trailed along, it whipped against the line of telegraph wires with such violence as to wind itself around the wires again and again, just as a whiplash winds round a hitching post when whipped against one. The result was that the runaway kites were finally anchored by the main line and held fast until their owner, coming in quick pursuit on ferry boat and train, could secure them. On another occasion, two of Mr. Eddie's kites flying in tandem broke away and started out to see the dangling line passing over a mord coal barge on which a man was working. Feeling something tickle his neck, the man put up his hand quickly and touched the kite cord. Greatly surprised, he seized the cord and made it fast, and he was not at all disposed to give up the kites when Mr. Eddie claimed them. There is no property, indeed, so hard to prove and recover as a runaway kite. For one thing, there is absolutely no telling how far a runaway kite will sail before landing. Mr. Eddie estimates that when the main line breaks, a kite well up in a 25-mile breeze will travel before alighting a distance equal to 12 times its height from the ground. This means that a kite straight over the battery in New York City and a mile in the air, driven by a stiff south wind, might land in yonkers if the cord broke. There is, by the way, an old-time ordinance on the statute book prohibiting the flying of kites in any part of New York City below 14th Street. This, however, did not prevent Mr. Eddie from taking recently a series of unique photographs. Some of them are reproduced in this article by means of a tandem of kites sent up from a high building near the City Hall Park. The only complication that resulted was a fierce contention among a crowd of idlers and garments over the possession of one of the kites, which came down accidentally and lodged in one of the park trees. The Lifting Power of Kites A tandem of six or eight six-foot kites exerts a pull of 30 pounds or more on the main line, but it must not be assumed that such a tandem would lift and carry through the air a weight of 30 pounds. The weight of 30 pounds would be carried a short distance, but as the weight moved off there would be a sudden lessening of the resistance on the line and so of the wind pressure against the kites, which would soon cause them to sink. A tandem of strong kites and a good breeze might be made to operate a sort of jumping apparatus, which, after being carried a short distance, would anchor itself to the ground until the renewed strength of the kites lifted it up again for another jump. But all kite experts are agreed that a kite's power for lifting loads clear of the ground must be enormously increased according as the distance to which the load is to be lifted is increased. It would be possible, for example, to build a tandem of kites strong enough to lift a man clear of the ground, supposing him to be swung in a basket from the main line. This indeed has been actually accomplished. September the 18th, 1895, in England, Captain Baden Powell was lifted to a height of 100 feet on a kite string supported by five large hexagon kites. But Mr. Eddy calculates that to lift a man of the same weight 150 pounds to a height of 1500 feet with a wind blowing at the same rate, 20 miles an hour, would require seven kites with upright and cross sticks not less than 64 feet each in length. The only other instance on record where a man has been lifted by a kite cord was in the experiment of the great Australian kite expert, Hargrave, who, on November the 12th, 1894, placed himself in a sling seat attached to a tandem of his wonderful box kites and was swung 16 feet clear of the earth. The entire load, including the seat and the pertinences, amounted to 208 pounds. Mr. Eddy calculates that six of his bird-shaped kites, 20 feet in diameter, would lift a man and basket in safety to a height of 100 feet, assuming the wind to be blowing steadily at 20 miles an hour. The meteorological use of kites Although Mr. Eddy began flying kites as a diversion, he soon saw that there were more serious reasons for continuing his experiments. Having long been interested in meteorological problems, it occurred to him that good results might be obtained by sending a loft on kite strings, self-registering thermometers, and apparatus for indicating the direction and strength of the air currents. On February the 4th, 1891, he sent up what is believed to be the first thermometer ever attached to a kite for scientific purposes. This was at nine o'clock in the evening on a cold winter's night. The thermometer registering 10 degrees Fahrenheit at the ground. On reading the record after the descent, the thermometer was found to mark 6 degrees Fahrenheit, which indicated, according to the recognized law of decrease of temperature, that the kite had been sent to a height of 1000 feet. The law is that in ascending from the Earth, the temperature falls one degree for every 250 feet. But subsequent experiments convinced Mr. Eddy that it was by no means to be relied upon as an indication of the height of kites. Not that the law is false, but it holds good only when the meteorological conditions above are the same as at the Earth's surface, which is very far from being the case always. Out of these experiments, Mr. Eddy evolved an important theory which has since been abundantly verified. Seeing the frequent variations in the thermometric readings from what the law had led him to expect, he concluded that these were due to meteorological variations overhead and that changes in the weather say the approach of warm waves or cold waves make themselves felt in the air strata above the Earth's surface several hours before they can be detected at the surface. Observations extending over months at the Blue Hills Observatory near Boston and elsewhere have abundantly confirmed this theory. With this fact established, it followed, in Mr. Eddy's opinion, that it was perfectly possible to use kites in making weather prognostications. And, indeed, he has been doing this himself for several years with the best results. Whenever his kite thermometers sent to a fixed height which he determines independently by a specially devised kite quadrant show actual readings which are either warmer or cooler than the theoretical readings, he prophesied that the weather will, within a few hours, become warmer or colder at the Earth's surface and these prophecies are fulfilled in a large majority of cases. If the kite thermometers show exactly the temperature which the law would call for, he prophesies that there will be no change in the weather. It has also been demonstrated that kites may be used by meteorologists to indicate the approach of storms which they foretell by a sudden and continuous veering over a considerable arc, usually about 60 degrees. This veering begins usually six or seven hours before a storm and often as much as 12 hours. And another sure sign of a storm is the continuous and sudden dropping of the kites followed by a quick recovery which shows that the wind is blowing in gusts interspersed with periods of calm. In making a series of meteorological experiments which he conducted at the Blue Hills Observatory Mr. Eddy often employed as many as eight or ten kites and in August 1895 he sent up twelve kites on one line, three of them being nine footers. This is probably the largest number of kites ever sent up in tandem and although on this occasion the line carried only the thermographs suspended in a basket the whole weighing not more than two pounds a very much larger load might have been carried had it been desired. Among many other curious things about the wind observed by Mr. Eddy is the fact that the night winds are by far the steadiest and most satisfactory for kite flying. On this account much of his work with kites has been done in the darkness although he uses lanterns on the lines to assist him in locating the kites. It has also been demonstrated that the force of the wind increases steadily as the distance from the earth increases. Archibald proved this conclusively by suspending a series of wind measuring instruments at intervals along the main line their registration showing almost invariably greater wind pressure at the higher altitude. Mr. Eddy has furthermore noted that while the early morning wind is usually very light at the earth's surface it is almost invariably good aloft. And he has again and again verified the well-established fact that all clouds herald their approach and are accompanied by increased wind velocity the highest flight ever made by a kite. The modern system of flying kites tandem was devised by Mr. Eddy in 1890 although it was hit upon two years later independently by Dr. Alexander B. Johnson the distinguished surgeon of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York. The tandem system makes it possible to send kites to far greater altitudes than had ever been previously attained. And here the best record is undoubtedly held by one of Mr. Eddy's tandems sent aloft at Bayonne on November the 7th, 1893. Mr. Eddy began to send up the kites at 7.30 am but being hampered by light breezes from the east found he was kept busy until half-past three in the afternoon in getting nine kites aloft. He had paid out nearly two miles of cord when the top kite, a little two-footer, stood straight over the spar-boy in Newark Bay. The lowest kite, a six-footer, was hovering some distance inland from the shore on a line from the shore to Mr. Eddy's house where the end of the line was anchored measuring 5,500 feet by the surveyor's map. Taking two observations from the two ends of this baseline, Mr. Eddy's kite quadrant showed angles of 35 and 66 degrees and these data, by simple methods of triangulation, were sufficient to determine the altitude of the kite which was found to be 5,595 feet or something over one mile. The kites were seen by hundreds of persons during the 15 hours that they remained up, the experiment coming to an abrupt end at 10 o'clock that night by the blowing away of the two upper kites in the increasing wind. The escaped kites disappeared in Newark Bay along with 3,000 feet of the line. Much interest attaches from a scientific point of view to experiments designed to test how great an altitude may be reached by kites and for a year past, Mr. Eddy has been working in this direction for the Smithsonian Institution, the hope being that he will ultimately succeed in sending kites 2 miles above the Earth's surface. Professor Langley has been following these experiments with great interest and has furnished Mr. Eddy with a special quality of silt cord which, it is believed, will give better results in meteorological observation than the ordinary hempen twine or rope. The great difficulty that Mr. Eddy finds in the way of making his kites reach great altitudes is the pull on the cord which increases greatly as the kites rise higher. It is probable that a tandem of 15 or 20 big kites reaching to a mile above the Earth's surface would exert a pull of 100 pounds. While at a height of 2 miles they might, Mr. Eddy thinks, exert a pull of 350 pounds and at a height of 3 miles, a pull of 700 pounds. However great the pull, it is essential to successful flying that the man in control be able to let out or reel in the main line with great rapidity and it is evident that a dozen men could not by hand alone accomplish this if the kites were sent as high as might be. It is likely, therefore, that as the importance of scientific height flying becomes more widely understood some simple dummy engine will be devised for rapidly turning the windlass on which the main line is round. Mr. Eddy has made frequent experiments with rain kites which he used for the first time in November 1893. It is true that Franklin sent up a flyer during a shower but in his case the rain was merely an accident accompanying the electric storm which was his only concern. Mr. Eddy, however, has sent up kites in the rain for the purpose of studying cloud altitudes and other meteorological phenomena. And by this means he has discovered what was not previously believed to be true that clouds sometimes sink to within 600 feet of the Earth's surface without actually coming down to it. In fact, Mr. Eddy has had kites disappear in a cloud at a height of only 568 feet. It has sometimes happened that clouds settling toward the Earth have obscured the kites gradually the top one becoming invisible first and then the others in succession. Mr. Eddy has found that by such indications he is able to foretell the approach of fog four or five hours before it reaches the Earth's surface so slowly do the clouds settle through the air strata. It is best to make rain kites of oil skin or paraffin paper as the ordinary paper or cloth becomes saturated with the dampness and very heavy, thus lessening the buoyancy of the line. So penetrating is the dampness of clouds even without a rainstorm that the wooden frames sometimes become warped and the paste seems soak open drawing down electricity by a kite string. The scientific kite flyer will find much to tempt him into the field of electricity and will be able not only to duplicate Dr. Franklin's historic experiment of bringing down sparks from the heavens but may go far beyond this taking advantage of the greater knowledge of electricity at his disposal and the superior apparatus. In the summer of 1885 Alexander McCady at the Blue Hills Observatory got strong sparks at the Earth's surface from a wire connected with a kite whose surface had been coated with tinfoil, ceresiform and electric collector. He also, by the brightness and increased lengths of the sparks obtained proved that the electric force in the atmosphere is very greatly increased with the approach of thunder clouds and also that this force increases steadily as the kites reach greater altitude and vice versa. Indeed, Mr. Eddy and others who have conducted similar experiments have found the electric force so strong at certain altitudes as to make the manipulation of the conducting wire a source of considerable danger. On October the 8th, 1892 Mr. Eddy made an important advance in electrical experiments with kites by using a collector quite separate from the kites themselves which were merely used in tandem to support the line on which the collector was swung and raised to any desired altitude. By this arrangement any accident that might befall one of the kites is less likely to ruin the whole experiment. 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 boundless supply of electricity. It has never yet happened to him to send his collector up to even so lower height as 400 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 paste-born wheel with dining 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 30th, 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. All this being arranged it is only necessary to send the camera up to any desired altitude and pull the camera cord in order to get photographs of wide stretching landscapes extensive cities like New York and panoramas of every description. Such photographs could not but be of the greatest value to geologists, mountain climbers, surveyors and explorers and they must possess particular interest for students of geography and for map makers possible use of kites in war. It is obvious too that kite photographs might be of great value in time of war since a detailed view of an enemy's lines and fortifications might be thus obtained while at sea a perfected kite photographing apparatus might be of great value in recording the approach of an enemy's ships. Mr. Eddy regards it as perfectly possible to send up a tandem of kites from the deck of a man of war with a circular camera such as has already been devised attached to the main line and an apparatus for snapping all the shutters simultaneously. And photograph not only the whole horizon as seen from the deck of a vessel but because of the greater elevation many miles beyond a battleship provided with this photographing device would enjoy as great an advantage as if it were able at will to stretch out its main mast into a tower of observation a mile high. It is true that some of the lenses in the circular camera the ones facing the sun might give imperfect pictures but in whatever position the sun might be at least 180 degrees of the horizon would be clearly photographed. And by taking such observations in the early morning and again in the middle of the afternoon it would be possible to cover the whole circuit and thus be aware of the approach of an enemy's ships long before they would have been visible to a telescope used on the deck. In such a circular camera each lens would be numbered and the position of each would be accurately determined with regard to the points of the compass by the use of guide cords stretching from the main line to the framework of the apparatus. Thus on looking at the number of the lens the photographer would immediately know from which direction any vessel whose image was shown might be coming. Nor is the use of the kite in war limited to the services it would render in photography. It might easily do more than that and become a most efficient and novel engine of destruction as has been shown it is merely a question of carpenter work to send up a tandem of kites that will swing a heavy load high in the air. Suppose that load were dynamite with an arrangement for dropping it over any desired spot. Mr. Eddy suggests that this might be affected by means of a slow match made by soaking a cotton string in saltpeter which would be lighted on dispatching the load of dynamite and would burn at a regular rate say one foot in five minutes so that the length of the match could be timed to meet the necessities of the case. On burning to its end the match would ignite a cord holding the dynamite at a paste board receptacle one side of which would fall down like the front of a wall pocket as soon as the restraining cord was burned through and immediately the dynamite in the box would be launched toward its destination. Mr. Eddy has already carried out an experiment similar to this in setting loose from high elevations tiny paper aeroplanes. With a little practice he found he could start the slow match with such precision as to cause the aeroplanes to burst out into flight at any desired altitude. This interesting and beautiful experiment was performed for the first time by Mr. Eddy on February 22nd 1893 when he sent off from a height of 1,000 feet 40 aeroplanes their forward edges weighted with pins for greater stability. Assuming such an arrangement made for discharging a load of dynamite Mr. Eddy calculates that with a 20-mile breeze 6 18-foot kites would lift 50 pounds of the explosive a quarter of a mile in the air and suspend it over a fort or beleaguered city half a mile distant. It would thus be perfectly possible supposing the wind to be in the right direction to bombard Staten Island with dynamite dropped from kites sent up from the Jersey Shore. It is evident that for purposes of bombardment a tandem of kites possesses several advantages over the war balloon. Kites are much cheaper then it would be far more difficult to disable them than to disable a balloon since they offer a smaller mark to the enemy's guns and even if one or two were destroyed the others would still suffice to carry the dynamite. Finally the kites may be sent up without risk to the lives of those who directed them which is not the case with the balloons. Another interesting and important application of the modern kite has been conceived by Professor J. Woodbridge Davis Principal of the Woodbridge Boys School in New York who is one of the most famous kite flyers in the world in addition to being a distinguished scientist and mathematician. It was Professor Davis who invented the dirigible kite several years ago three strings allowing the operator to steer the kite from right to left at will or to make it sink to earth. Having perfected this curious kite which is of hexagon shape is covered with oiled silk is foldable, portable and has a tail Professor Davis turned his attention to his more recent and important discovery of the dirigible boy which bids fair to do much to lessen the dangers of shipwreck. For months past Professor Davis assisted by Mr. Eddie has been experimenting on the Kilvon Cull with this boy and has obtained most encouraging results. There are two kinds both being designed to be attached to kite lines and drawn over the water by the power of the kite. The simpler variety is merely a long wooden tube about three inches in diameter and shaped very much like a gun projectile with a cone of tin dragging behind to give steadiness. It is for use only when the wind is blowing in exactly the direction in which it is designed to send a message or carry a rope. It will be observed that in a large number of cases when ships are driven on rocks the wind is blowing toward the shore and in such cases a line of kites would readily carry one of these boys ashore with the important words inside or the still more important rope following after. Not satisfied, however, with this boy Professor Davis sought some means of making kites draw a load across the water in any direction desired regardless of the way the wind might be blowing and after much thought and calculation he hit upon what is now known as the Davis Boy an object that has become familiar to dwellers at Bergen Point and Port Richmond from the frequent experiments on the kill that have been carried on during the past year. This form of boy is much larger than the other being three or four feet in length and its essential feature is a deep iron keel that projects below out of the block of wood forming the body. It is evident that this keel will tend to keep the boy headed in any given direction and stability of position is further assured by the presence of guy ropes attached to the main line of the kite. Each boy is provided with three of these ropes which, by being lengthened or shortened, may cause the boy to form any desired angle with the kite cord and to keep it. Professor Davis has entirely succeeded in making the kites drag the boy along the water in various directions in the very strongest gales. In fact, under precisely the conditions that would assist when the boys would be needed for life-saving service from wrecks. And he is positive that with further experiment he will be able by moving along the shore until attacking angle is reached not only to send lines, food or messages to a disabled vessel from the shore but to bring back by the same kites and the same boy other lines and messages from the people in distress. Considering the important offices of which it has already been proved capable and the possibility which these suggest of many other practical applications it is clear that the kite is no longer to be regarded as simply a toy. And this, in turn, suggests anew the familiar truth that, after all, nothing in this world is of small consequence. End of Scientific Kite-Flying by Cleveland Moffitt. Wild Apples by Henry David Thoreau. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The History of the Apple Tree It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the rosea which includes the apple also the true grasses and the labiate or mints were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe. Appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of the Swiss lakes supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome. So old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black and shriveled crab apple has been recovered from their stores. Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger with wild apples among other things. Niebuhr observes that the words for a house, a field, a plow, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples and others relating to agriculture and the gentler ways of life agree in Latin and Greek while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chaser utterly alien from the Greek. Thus the apple tree may be considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive. The apple was early so important and so generally distributed that its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general. Malone, melon in Greek needs an apple also the fruit of other trees also a sheep and any cattle and finally riches in general. The apple tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans and Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted by its fruit. Goddesses are famed to have contended for it. Dragons were set to watch it and heroes were employed to pluck it. The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings as the apple tree among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the suns and again stay me with flagans comfort me with apples. The noblest part of man's noblest feature is named from this fruit the apple of the eye. The apple tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in the glorious garden of Alsinus pears and pomegranates and apple trees bearing beautiful fruit and according to Homer apples were among the fruits which tantalus could not pluck the wind ever blowing their boughs away from him. Bialfrostus knew and described the apple tree as a botanist. According to the prose Edda, Eduna keeps in a box the apples which the gods when they feel old age approaching have only to taste of to become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in renovated youth until Ragnarok for the destruction of the gods. I learned from Loudon that the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded for excelling in song by the token of the apple spray and in the highlands of Scotland the apple tree is the badge of the clan Lomont. The apple tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone. Loudon says that it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe except the frigid zone and throughout Western Asia China and Japan. We have also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America The cultivated apple tree was first introduced into this country by the earliest settlers and is thought to do as well or better here than anywhere else. Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into Britain by the Romans. Pliny adopted the distinction of theophrastus saying of trees there are some which are altogether wild some more civilized. Theophrastus includes the apple among the last and indeed it is in this sense the most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as a dove as beautiful as a rose and as valuable as flocks and herds. It has been longer cultivated than any other and so is more humanized and who knows but like the dog it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild original. It migrates with man like the dog and horse and cow first perchance from Greece to Italy thence to England thence to America and our western emigrant is still marching steadily toward the setting sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket or perhaps a few young trees strapped to his load. At least a million apple trees are thus set farther west this year than any cultivated ones grew last year. Consider how the blossom wheat like the Sabbath is thus annually spread over the prairies for when man migrates he carries with him not only his birds quadrupeds insects vegetables and is very swarred but is orchard also. The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic animals as the cow, horse, sheep and goat and the fruit is sought after by the first as well as by the hog. Thus there appears to have existed a natural alliance between these animals in this tree from the first. The fruit of the crab in the forests of France is said to be a great resource for the wild boar. Not only the Indian but many indigenous insects birds and quadrupeds welcome the apple tree to these shores. The tent caterpillar saddles their eggs on the very first twig that was formed and it has since shared her affections with the wild cherry and the canker worm also in a measure abandoned the elm to feed on it as it grew apace the bluebird robin cherry bird kingbird and many more came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its boughs and so became orchard birds and multiplied more than ever was an era in the history of their race. The downy woodpecker found such a savory morsel under its bark that he perforated it in a ring quite round the tree before he left it a thing which he had never done before to my knowledge did not take the partridge long to find out how sweet its buds were and every winter eve she flew and still flies from the wood to pluck them much to the farmer's sorrow. The rabbit too was not slow to learn the taste of its twigs and bark and when the fruit was ripe the squirrel half rolled half carried it to his hole and even the muskwash crept up the bank from the brook at evening and greedily devoured it until he had worn a path in the grass there and when it was frozen and thawed the crow and the jay were glad to taste it occasionally. The owl crept in the first apple tree that became hollow and fairly hooded with delight finding it just the place for him so settling down into it he has remained there ever since. My theme being the wild apple I will merely glance at some of the seasons in the annual growth of the cultivated apple and pass on to my special province. The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree so copious and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walkers frequently tempted to turn and linger near some more than usually handsome ones whose blossoms are two-thirds expanded. How superior it is in these respects to the pair whose blossoms are neither colored nor fragrant. By the middle of July green apples are so large as to remind us of codling and of the autumn. This ward is commonly screwed with little ones which fall stillborn as it were. Nature thus thinning them for us. The Roman writer Palladius says if apples are inclined to fall before their time a stone placed in a split root will retain them. Some such notion still surviving may account for some of the stones which we see placed to be overgrown in the forks of trees. They have a saying in Suffolk, England at Mickelmestime or a little before half an apple goes to the core. Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August but I think that none of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth more to scent your handkerchief with than any perfume which they sell in the shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not to be forgotten along with out of flowers. Some gnarly apple which I pick up in the road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth of Pomona carrying me forward to those days when they will be collected in golden and ruddy heaps in the orchards and about the cider mills. A week or two later as you were going by orchards or gardens especially in the evenings you pass through a little region possessed by the fragrance of ripe apples and thus enjoy them without price and without robbing anybody. There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and ethereal quality which represents their highest value which cannot be vulgarized or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the perfect flavor of any fruit and only the Godlike among men begin to taste its ambrosial qualities. For nectar and ambrosia are only those fine flavors of every earthly fruit which our course palates fail to proceed just as we occupy the heaven of the gods without knowing it. When I see a particularly mean man carrying a load of fare and fragrant early apples to market I seem to see a contest going on between him and his horse on the one side and the apples on the other. And to my mind the apples always gain it. Pliny says that apples are the heaviest of all things and that the oxen begin to sweat at the mere sight of a load of them. Our driver begins to lose his load the moment he tries to transport them to where they do not belong. That is to any but the most beautiful. Though he gets out from time to time and feels of them and thinks they are all there. I see the stream of their effinous and celestial qualities going to heaven from his cart. While the pulp and skin and core are only going to market. They are not apples but pomas. Are these not still Eduna's apples the taste of which keeps the gods forever young and think you that they will let Loki or Fassi carry them off to Jutunhan while they grow wrinkled and gray No Barak Narak or the destruction of the gods is not yet. There is another thinning of the fruit commonly near the end of August or in September when the ground is strewn with windfalls and this happens especially when high winds occur after rain and some orchards you may see fully three quarters of the whole crop on the ground lying in a circular form beneath the trees yet hard and green or if it is a hillside rolled far down the hill however it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good all the country over people are picking up the windfalls and this will make them cheap for early apple pies in October the leaves falling the apples are more distinct on the trees I saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of fruit than I remember to have ever seen before small yellow apples hang over the road the branches were gracefully drooping with their weight like a barberry bush so that the whole tree acquired a new character even the topmost branches instead of standing erect spread and drooped in all directions and there were so many poles supporting the lower ones that they look like the pictures of banyan trees as an old English manuscript says the mow apple in the tree bareth the more she boweth to the folk surely the apple is the noblus of fruits let the most beautiful or the swiftest habit that should be the going price of apples between the 5th and 20th of October I see the barrels lie under the trees perhaps I taught with one who is selecting some choice barrels to fulfill an order he turns a speckled one over many times before he leaves it out if I were to tell what is passing in my mind I should say that everyone was speckled which he had handled for who rubs off all of the bloom in those fagacious ethereal qualities leave it cool evenings prompt the farmers to make haste and at length I see only the ladders here and there left leaning against the trees would be well if we accepted these gifts with more joy and gratitude and did not think in enough simply to put a fresh load of compost about the tree some old English customs are suggestive at least I find them described chiefly in brands popular antiquities appears that on Christmas Eve the farmers and their men in Devonshire take a large bowl of cider with a toast in it and carried in state to the orchard they salute the apple trees with much ceremony in order to make them bear well the next season the salutation consists in throwing some of the cider of the roots of the tree placing bits of the toast on the branches and then encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard they drink the following toast three several times here's to the old apple tree once thou mayest bud and once thou mayest blow and once thou mayest bear apples you know hats full caps full bushel bushel sax full and my pockets full too hurrah also what was called apple howling used to be practiced in various counties in england on new year's eve the trooper boys visited the different orchards and encircling the apple trees repeated the following words stand fast rude bear well top pray God send us a good howling crop every twig apples big every bow apples he now then they shout and chorus one of the boys accompany them on a cowshorn during this ceremony they wrap the trees with their sticks this is called wassaling the trees and is thought by some to be a relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona Eric sings wassled the trees that they may bear you many a plum and many a pear for more or less fruits they will bring as you so give them wassaling our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine but it behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did else they will do no credit to their muse wild apple so much for the more civilized apple trees for Bonnie or his as Pliny calls them I love better to go through the old orchards of un grafted apple trees at whatever season of the year so irregularly planted sometimes two trees standing close together and the row so devious that you would think that they had not only grown while the owner was sleeping but had been set out by him in a some nambulic state the rows of grafted fruit will never tempt me to wander amid them like this but I now alas speak rather from memory than from any recent experience such ravages have been made some soils like a rocky track called the Easter Brooks Country and my neighborhood are so suited to the apple that it will grow faster in them without any care or if only the ground is broken up once a year then it will in many places with any amount of care the owners of this tract allow that the soil is excellent for fruit but they say that is so rocky that they have not patience to plow it and that together with the distance is the reason why it is not cultivated there are or more recently extensive orchards in order nay they bring up wild and bear well there in the midst of pines birches maples and oaks I'm often surprised to see rising amid these trees the rounded tops of apple trees glowing with red or yellow fruit in harmony with the autumnal tints of the forest going up the side of a cliff about the first of November I saw a vigorous young apple tree which planted by birds or cows had shot up amid the rocks and open woods there and had now much fruit on it uninjured by the frost when all cultivated apples were gathered was a rank while growth with many green leaves on it still and made an impression of thorniness the fruit was hard and green but looked as if it would be palatable in the winter some was hanging on the twigs but more half buried in the wet leaves under the tree or rolled far down the hill amid the rocks the owner knows nothing of it the day was not observed when at first blossom nor when at first bore fruit unless by the chickadee there was no dancing on the green beneath it in its honor and now there is no hand to pluck its fruit which is only gnawed by squirrels as I perceive it has done double duty not only borne this crop but each twig has grown a foot into the air and this is such fruit must admit and carried home will be sound and palatable next spring what care I for Eduna's apples so long as I can get these when I go by this shrub thus late and hearty and see its dangly fruit I respect the tree and I am grateful for nature's bounty even though I cannot eat it here on this rugged and woody hillside has grown an apple tree not planted by man no relic of a former orchard but a natural growth like the pines and oaks most fruits which we prize and use depend entirely on our care corn and grain potatoes peaches melons et cetera depend all together on our planting but the apple emulates man's independence in enterprise it is not simply carried as I have said but like him to some extent it is migrated to this new world and is even here and there making its way amid the aboriginal trees just as the ox and dog and horse sometimes run wild and maintain themselves even the sourest and crabbidest apple growing in the most unfavorable position suggests such thoughts as these it is so noble of fruit the crab nevertheless our wild apple is wild only like myself perchance who belong not to the aboriginal race here but have strayed into the woods from the cultivated stock while they're still as I have said there grows elsewhere in this country a native and aboriginal crab apple whose nature has not yet been modified by cultivation it is found from western New York to Minnesota and southward Michaud says that its ordinary height is 15 or 18 feet but it is sometimes found 25 or 30 feet high and that the large ones exactly resemble the common apple tree the flowers are white mingled with rose color and are collected in coreums they are remarkable for their delicious odor the fruit according to him is about an inch and a half in diameter and is intensely acid yet they make fine sweetmates and also cider of them he concludes that if on being cultivated it does not yield new and palatable varieties it will at least be celebrated for the beauty of its flowers and for the sweetness of its perfume I never saw the crab apple till May 1861 I had heard of it through Michaud but more modern botanists so far as I know have not treated it as of any particular importance thus it was a half fabulous tree to me I contemplated the pilgrimage to the glades a portion of Pennsylvania where it was said to grow to perfection I thought of sending to a nursery for it but doubt it if they had it or would distinguish it from European varieties at last I had occasion to go to Minnesota and on entering Michigan I began to notice from the cars a tree with handsome rose-colored flowers at first I thought at some variety of thorn but it was not long before the truth flashed on me that this was my long sought crab apple it was the prevailing flowering shrub or tree to be seen from the cars at that season of the year about the middle of May but the cars never stopped before one and so I was launched on the bosom of the Mississippi without having touched one experiencing the fate of Tantalus on arriving at St. Anthony's falls I was sorry to be told that I was too far north for the crab apple nevertheless I seceded and finding at about eight miles west of the falls touched it and smelled it and secured a lingering quorum of flowers for my herbarium this must have been near its northern limit how the wild apple grows but though these are indigenous like the Indians I doubt whether they are any harder than those back woodsman among the apple trees which though descended from cultivated stocks plant themselves in distant fields and forests where the soil is favorable to them I know of no trees which have more difficulties to contend with and which more sturdily resists their foes these are the ones whose story we have to tell it oftentimes reads thus near the beginning of May we notice little thickets of apple trees just springing up in the pastures where cattle have been as the rocky ones of our Easterbrooks country or the top of Nobscott Hill in Sudbury one or two of these perhaps survived the drought in other accidents their very birthplace defending them against the encroaching grass and some other dangers at first in two years time tad thus reached the level of the rocks mired the stretching world nor fear the wandering flocks but at this tender age it's suffering began the came a browsing ox and cut it down a span this time perhaps the ox does not notice it amid the grass but the next year when it has grown more stout he recognizes it for a fellow immigrant from the old country the flavor of whose leaves and twigs he well knows and though at first he pauses to welcome it and and gets for answer the same cause that brought you here brought me he never the less browses it again reflecting it may be that he has some title to it thus cut down annually it does not despair but putting forth two short twigs for everyone cut off it spreads out low along the ground in the hollows or between the rocks growing more stout and scrubby until it forms not a tree as yet but a little pyramidal stiff twiggy mass almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock some of the densest and most impenrable clumps of bushes that I've ever seen as well on account of the closeness and stubbornness of their branches as of their thorns have been these wild apple scrubs they are more like the scrubby fur and black spruce on which you stand and sometimes walk on the tops of mountains or cold is it the demon they contend with than anything else no wonder they are prompted to grow thorns at last to defend themselves against such foes in their thorniness however there is no malice only some malic acid the rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to where they maintain the ground best in a rocky field are thickly sprinkled with these little tufts reminding you often of some rigid gray mosses or lichens and you see thousands of little trees just springing up between them with the seeds still attached to them being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows as a hedge with shears they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form from one to four feet high and more or less sharp as if trimmed by the gardener's art in the pastures on Nobscott hill in its spurs they make fine dark shadows when the sun is low they are also an excellent covert from hawks for many small birds that roost and build in them whole flocks perch in them at night and I have seen three robins nests in one which was six feet in diameter no doubt many of these are already old trees if you reckon from the day they were planted but infants still when you consider their development and the long life before them I counted the annual rings of some which were just one foot high and as wide as high and found that they were about 12 years old but quite sound and thrifty they were so low that they were unnoticed by the walker while many of their contemporaries from the nurseries were already bearing considerable crops but what you gain in time is perhaps in this case two lost in power that is in the vigor of the tree this is their pyramidal state the cows continue to browse them thus for 20 years or more keeping them down and compelling them to spread till at last they are so broad that they become their own fence with some interior chute which their foes cannot reach darts upward with joy for it is not forgotten its high calling and bears its own peculiar fruit and triumph such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bov on foes now the progress of a particular shrub you will see that it is no longer a simple pyramid or cone but out of its apex there rises a sprig or two growing more lustily per chance than an orchard tree since the plant now devotes the whole of its repressed energy to these upright parts in a short time these become a small tree an inverted pyramid resting on the apex of the other so that the hole has now the form of the vast hourglass the spreading bottom having served its purpose finally disappears and the generous tree permits the now harmless cows to come in and stand in its shade and rub against it and read in its trunk which has grown in spite of them and even to taste a part of its fruit and so disperse the seed thus the cows create their own shade and food and the tree its hourglass being inverted lives the second life as it were it is an important question with some nowadays whether you should trim young apple trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes the ox trims them up as high as he can reach and that is about the right height I think in spite of wandering kind in the other adverse circumstance that despise shrub valued only by small birds as a covert shelter from hawks has its blossom week at last and in course of time its harvest sincere though small by the end of some October when its leaves have fallen I frequently see such a central twig whose progress I have watched when I thought it had forgotten its destiny as I had bearing its first crop of small green or yellow or rosy fruit which the cows cannot get at over the bushy and thorny hedge which surrounds it and I make haste to taste the new and undescribe variety we have all heard of the numerous varieties of fruit invented by Von Manz and Knight this is the system of van cow and she has invented far more and more memorable varieties than both of them through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit though somewhat small that may prove equal if not superior in flavor to that which is grown in a garden will perchance be all the sweeter and more palatable for the very difficulties it has had to contend with who knows but this chance wild fruit planted by a cow or a bird on some remote and rocky hillside where it is as yet unobserved by man may be the choices of all its kind in foreign potentate shall hear of it in royal society seek to propagate it though the virtues of the perhaps truly crapped owner of the soil may never be heard of at least beyond the limits of his village it was thus the porter in the Baldwin crew every wild apple shrub excites our expectation thus somewhat as every wild child it is perhaps a prince in disguise what a lesson to man so are human beings referred to the highest standard the celestial fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear browsed on by fate and only the most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and prevails sends a tender scion upward at last and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful earth poets and philosophers and statesman thus spring up in the country pastures and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men such as always the pursuit of knowledge the celestial fruits the golden apples of the asperities are ever guarded by a hundred-headed dragon which never sleeps so that it is an herculean labor to pluck them this is one in the most remarkable way in which the wild apple is propagated but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods and swamps and by the sides of roads as the soil may suit it and grows with comparative rapidity those which grow in dense forests are very tall and slender I frequently pluck from these trees a perfectly mild intamed fruit as Palladius says and the ground is strewn with the fruit of an unbidden apple tree it is an old notion that if these wild trees do not bear a valuable fruit of their own they're the best stocks by which to transmit posterity the most highly prized qualities of others however I'm not in search of stocks but the wild fruit itself whose fierce gust has suffered no intineration it is not my highest plot to plant the bergamot the fruit and its flavor the time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of November they then get to be palatable for the ripe and late and they are still perhaps as beautiful as ever I make a great account of these fruits which the farmers do not think it worth the wild to gather while flavors of amuse vivacious and in spiriting the farmer thinks that he has better in his barrels but he is mistaken unless he has a walker's appetite and imagination neither of which can he have such as grow quite wild and are left out till the first of November I presume that the owner does not mean to gather they belong to children as while is themselves to certain active the wild eyed woman of the fields to whom nothing comes amiss who cleans after all the world and more over to us walkers we have met with them and they are ours these rights long enough insisted upon have come to be an institution in some old countries where they have learned how to live I hear that the custom of gripling which may be called apple cleaning is or was formerly practiced in perforature it consists in leaving a few apples which are called grubbles on every tree after the general gathering for the boys who go with climbing poles and bags to collect them as for those I speak out I pluck them as wild fruit native to this quarter of the earth fruit of old trees that had been dying ever since I was a boy in our not yet dead frequented only by the woodpecker in the squirrel deserted now by the owner who was not faith enough to look under their boughs from the appearance of the tree top at a little distance you would expect nothing but lichens to drop from it but your faith is rewarded by finding the ground strewn with spirited fruit some of it perhaps collected at squirrel holes with the marks of their teeth by which they carried them some containing a cricket or two silently feeding within in some especially in damp days the shellless snail the very sticks and stones lodged in the tree top might have convinced you of the savouriness of the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in past years I've seen no account of these among the fruits and fruit trees of America though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted kinds more racy and wild American flavors do they possess when October in November when December in January perhaps have assuaged them somewhat an old farmer in my neighborhood who always selects the right word says that they have a kind of bow arrow tang apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly not so much for their spirit of flavor as for their mildness their size and bearing qualities not so much for their beauty as for their fairness and soundness indeed I have no faith in the selected lists of palm illogical gentlemen their favorites and non-such us and seek no furthers when I fruited them commonly turn out very tame and forgettable they are eaten with comparatively little zest and have no real tang or smack to them what if some of these wildings are accurate and puckery genuine verge use do they not still belong to the pome saia which are uniformly innocent and kind to our race I still begrudge them to the cider mill perhaps they are not fairly ripe yet no wonder that the small and high-colored apples are thought to make the best cider Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire report that apples of a small size are always if equal in quality to be preferred to those of a larger size in order that the rind and kernel may bear the greatest proportion to the pulp which affords the weakest in most watery juice and he says that to prove this Dr. Simmons of Hereford about the year 1800 made one hogs head of cider entirely from the rinds and cores of apples and another from the pulp only when the first was found of extraordinary strength and flavor while the latter was sweet and insipid Evelyn says that the red streak was the favorite cider apple in his day and he quotes one Dr. Newberg as saying in Jersey tis a general observation as I hear that the more of red any apple has in its rind the more proper it is for this use pale face apples they exclude as much as may be from their cider that this opinion still prevails all apples are good in November those which the farmer leaves out is unsalable and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets our choices fruit to the Walker but it is remarkable that the wild apple which I praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or woods being brought into the house as frequently a harsh and crab taste the saunterers apple not even the saunterer can eat in the house the palette rejects it there as it does Hawes and acorns and demands attained one for there you miss the November air which is the sauce it is to be eaten with accordingly when titira seen the lathe and shadows invites melebeus to go home and past the night with him he promises him wild apples and soft chestnuts I frequently plucked wild apples of so rich and spicy a flavor that I wonder all orchard is do not get a sign from that tree and I fail not to bring home my pockets full but perchance when I take one out of my desk and tasted in my chamber I find it unexpectedly crude sour enough to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a J screen these apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have absorbed the qualities of the weather a season and thus are highly seasoned and they pierce and sting and permeate us with their spirit they must be eaten in season accordingly that is out of doors to appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits it is necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air the outdoor air and exercise which the Walker gets give a different tone to his palette and he craze a fruit which the sedentary would call harsh and crabbed they must be eaten in the fields when your system is all a glow with exercise when the frosty weather nips your fingers the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves and the J is heard screaming around what is sour in the house of racing walk makes sweet some of these apples might be labeled to be eaten in the wind course no flavors are thrown away they are intended for the taste that is up to them some apples have two distinct flavors and perhaps one half of them must be eaten in the house the other outdoors one Peter Whitney wrote from north borough in 1782 for the proceedings of the Boston Academy describing an apple tree in that town producing fruit of opposite qualities part of the same apple being frequently sour and the other sweet also some all sour and others all sweet and this diversity on all parts of the tree there is a wild apple on Naushetuck hill my town which has to me a peculiarly pleasant bitter tang not perceived till it is three quarters tasted it remains on the tongue as you eat it it smells exactly like a squash bug it is a sort of triumph to eat and relish it I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum tree in province is called prune sea barrails because it is impossible to whistle after having eaten them from their sourness but perhaps they are only eaten in the house and in summer and have tried out of doors in a stinging atmosphere who knows but you could whistle on octave higher and clearer in the fields only are the sours and bitters of nature appreciated just as the wood chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade in the middle of a winter day with content bass in a sunny ray there and dreams of summer in a degree of cold which would make a student miserable they who are at work abroad are not cold but rather it is they who sit shivering in houses as with temperatures so with flavors as with cold and heat so with sour and sweet this natural raciness the sours and bitters which the disease palette refuses of the true condiments let your condiments be in the condition of your senses to appreciate the flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and healthy senses papillé firm and erect on the tongue and palate not easily flattened and tamed from my experience with wild apples I can understand that there may be reason for a savages preferring many kinds of food which the civilized men rejects the former has the palette of an outdoor man it takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit what a healthy out of door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life the apple of the world then nor is it every apple I desire nor that which pleases every palette best tis not the lasting douche and I require nor yet the red cheek greening I request nor that which first be shrewed the name of wife nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife no no bring me an apple from the tree of life so there is one thought for the field another for the house I would have my thoughts like wild apples to be food for walkers it will not warrant them to be palatable if tasted in the house their beauty almost all wild apples are handsome they cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and rusty to look at the gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the eye you will discover some evening redness dashed or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity it is rare that the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere will have some red stains commemorating the mornings and evenings that has witnessed some dark and rusty blotches in memory of the clouds and foggy mildewy days that have passed over it in a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of nature green even as the fields or yellow ground which implies a milder flavor yellow is the harvest or russet as the hills apple these I mean unspeakably fair apples not of discord but concord yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share painted by the frosts some a uniform clear bright yellow or red or crimson as if their spheres had regularly revolved and enjoyed the influence of the sun on all sides alike some with a faintest pink blush imaginable some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow or with hundreds of fine blood red rays running regularly from the stem dimple to the blossom end like meridinal lines on a straw colored ground some touched with a greenish rust like a fine lichen here and there with crimson blotches or eyes more or less confluent and fiery when wet and others gnarly and freckled or peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white ground as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of him who paints the autumn leaves others again are sometimes red inside perfused with a beautiful to eat apple of the Hesperides apple of the evening sky but like shells and pebbles on the seashore they must be seen as they sparkle amid the withering trees in some dell in the woods and the autumnal air or as they lie on the wet grass and not when they have wilted and faded in the house the naming of them would be a pleasant past time to find suitable names for the hundred varieties which go to a single heap at the side or no would it not tax a man's invention no one to be named after a man and all in the lingua vernacular who shall stand godfather at the christening of the wild apples would exhaust the latin greek languages if they were used and make the lingua vernacular flag we should have to call in the sunrise in the sunset the rainbow and the autumn woods in the wild flowers in the woodpecker in the purple finch in the squirrel in the jay in the butterfly the november traveler in the truant boy to our aid in 1836 they were in the garden of the london horticultural society more than 1400 distinct sorts but here are species which they have not in their catalogue not to mention the varieties which are crab might yield cultivation let us enumerate a few of these I find myself compelled after all to give the latin names of some for the benefit of those who live where English is not spoken they are likely to have a worldwide reputation there is first of all the wood apple malis silvotica the blue jay apple the apple which grows in dels in the woods silvestrious valis oswan hollows in pastures corpus trivalis the apple that grows in an old cellar hole malis cellaris the meadow apple the potritch apple the truance apple say satoris which no boy will ever go by without knocking off some however late it may be the saunterer's apple you must lose yourself before you can find the way to that the beauty of the air dex arias December eating the frozen thawed gelato saluta good only in that state the concord apple possibly the same as muscata tirensis the asiput apple the brindle apple wine of new england the chicory apple the green apple malice veritas this is many synonyms in an imperfect state it is the cholera morbiferra out descent to ferra perulus delectissima the apple which atalantis stopped to pick up the hedge apple malice sepium the slug apple limesia the railroad apple which perhaps came from a core thrown out of the cars the apple whose fruit we taste it in our youth our particular apple not to be found in any catalog pedestrian salatium also the apple where hangs the forgotten scythe edunas apples and the apples which Loki found in the wood in a great many more I have on my list too numerous to mention all of them good as bodayus exclaims referring to the cultivated kinds and adapting virtual to his case so I adapting bodayus not if I had a hundred tons a hundred mouths an iron voice could I describe all the forms and reckon up all the names of these wild apples the last gleaning by the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their brilliancy and have chiefly fallen a great parter decayed on the ground and the sound ones are more palatable than before the note of the chickadee sounds now more distinct as you wander amid the old trees and the autumnal dandelion is half closed and tearful but still if you are a skillful gleaner you may get many a pocketful even of grafted fruit long after apples are supposed to be gone out of doors I know a blue permaine tree growing within the edge of a swamp almost as good as wild you would not suppose that there was any fruit left there on the first survey but you must look according to system those which I exposed are quite brown and rotten now or perchance if you still show one blooming cheek here and there amid the wet leaves nevertheless with experienced eyes I explore amid the bear alders and the huckleberry bushes and the withered sedge and in the crevices of the rocks which are full of leaves and pry under the fallen and decaying ferns which with apple and alder leaves thickly strewn the ground for I know that they lie concealed fallen into hollows long since and covered up by the leaves of the tree itself proper kind of packing from these lurking places anywhere within the circumference of the tree I draw forth the fruit all wet and glossy maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with a leaf or two cemented to it as Curzon an old manuscript from a monastery's moldy seller but still with a rich bloom on it and at least as ripe and well-capped if not better than those in barrels more crisp and lively than they if these resources fail to yield anything I've learned to look between the basis of the suckers which spring thickly from some horizontal limb for now and then one lodges there or in the very mist of the alder clump where they are covered by leaves safe from cows which may have smelled them out if I am sharp set for I do not refuse the blue Paramein I fill my pockets on each side and as I retrace my steps in the frosty Eve being perhaps four or five miles from home I eat one first from this side and from that side to keep my balance I learned from Topsell's Gesner whose authority appears to be Albertus that the following is the way in which the hedgehog collects and carries home his apples he says his meat is apples worms or grapes when he findeth apples or grapes on the earth he rolleth himself upon them until he have filled all his prickles and then carryeth them home to his den never bearing above one in his mouth and if it fortune that one of them fall off by the way he likewise shakeeth off all the residue and walloweth upon them afresh until they be all settled upon his back again so forth he goes making a noise like a cartwheel and if he have any young ones in his nest they pull off his load wherewithall he is loaded eating thereof what they please and laying up the residue for the time to come the frozen thawed apple toward the end of November though some of the sound ones are yet more mellow and perhaps more edible they have generally like the leaves lost their beauty and are beginning to freeze it is finger cold and prudent farmers get in their barreled apples and bring you the apples inside or which they had engaged for it is time to put them into the cellar perhaps a few on the ground show their red cheeks above the early snow and occasionally some even preserve their color and soundness under the snow throughout the winter but generally at the beginning of the winter they freeze hard and soon though undecayed acquire the color of a baked apple before the end of December generally they experienced their first thawing those which a month ago were sour crabbed and quite unpalatable to the civilized taste such at least as were frozen while sound let a warmer son come to thaw them for the extremely sensitive to its rays are found to be filled with a rich sweet cider better than any bottled cider that I know of and with which I am better acquainted than with wine all apples are good in this state and your jaws are the cider press others which have more substance are a sweet and luscious food in my opinion have more worth than the pineapples which are imported from the West Indies those which lately even I tasted only to repent of it for I am semi-civilized which the farmer willingly left on the tree I am now glad to find have the property of hang on like the leaves of the young oaks it is a way to keep cider sweet without boiling let the frost come to freeze them first solid as stones and then let the rain or a warm winter day to thaw them and they will seem to have borrowed a flavor from heaven through the medium of the air in which they hang or per chance you find when you get home that those which rattled in your pocket have thawed and the ice is turning to cider but after the third or fourth freezing and thawing they will not be found so good what are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid south to this fruit matured by the cold of the frigid north these are those crab apples with which I cheated my companion and kept a smooth face that I might tempt him to eat now we both greedily fill our pockets with them bending to drink the cup and save our lappets from the overflowing juice and grow more social with their wine was there one that hung so high and sheltered by the tangled branches that our sticks could not dislodge it it is a fruit never carried to market that I'm aware of quite distinct from the apple of the markets as from dried apple and cider and is not every winter that produces it in perfection hear this ye old men and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land hath this been in your days or even in the days of your father that which the Palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten and that which the locust hath left hath the canker worm eaten and that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten awake he drunkards and weep and how all ye drinkers of wine because of the new wine for it is cut off from your mouth for a nation has come up upon the land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a lion and he hath the cheek teeth of a great line he hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree he hath made it clean bear and cast it away the branches thereof are made white be ye ashamed oh ye husbandman how oh ye vine dressers the vine is dried up in the fig tree languisheth the pomegranate tree the palm tree also in the apple tree even all the trees of the field are withered because joy is withered away from the sons of men notes Nibor a German historical critic of ancient life goddesses are fabled to have contended for it dragons were set to watch it and heroes were employed to pluck it the Greek myths especially referred to are the choice of Paris and the apples of the hisperides Eda the stories of the early Scandinavians Loudon in English authority on the culture of orchards and gardens Pomona the Roman goddess of fruit and fruit trees Utenheim in Scandinavian mythology was the home of the Uten or giants Loki was a descendant of the gods and a companion of the giants TSC was a giant Michaud pronounced Michaud of French botanists and traveler Van Mons a Belgian chemist and horticulturist Knight in English vegetable physiologist Evelyn an English writer of the 17th century Papillae a Latin word accent on the second syllable meaning here the rough surface of the tongue and palate lingua vernacular common speech cholera morbifera out dis teri ferra perulis delectissima the apple that brings the disease of cholera and of dysentery the fruit that small boys like best pedestrian solitium the tramps comfort curzon Robert Curzon was a traveler who searched for old manuscripts in the monasteries of the Levant see his book Ancient Monasteries of the East hear this yield men and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers etc. Joel Chapter 1 Versus 1 through 12 the yawn of the computer age or when your terminal is terminal by redacted from cryptologue volume 2 number 1 published by the national security agency this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Mike Overby Midland Washington it's no secret that NSA has become almost totally dependent on computer systems to aid our analysts the fact is we've had to turn over these systems in order to handle the increasing volume of work that grows more sophisticated while our people power is shrinking but this dependence on computer systems has not been without its drawbacks and frustrations I'd like to call your attention to one of these it's bad enough that the expletive deleted computers are down several times a day but that's something we have been conditioned to expect the real crime being perpetrated on systems users in NSA is far more difficult to adapt to it is the dreadful excuse given in accompaniment of any system failure or blow-up power problem on the platform some anonymous voice monotone see you over the phone or worse still don't know the representatives looking at it now I ask you where's the satisfaction in explanations like this we users are looking for a salve and instead we receive the same infuriating excuses time after time well I have a suggestion worked out while awaiting the reactivation of a lifeless terminal let's have a contest users will send in their nominations for reasons to explain the systems failures the best of these will be selected for play on taped telephone messages naturally these will have to be changed several times a day coinciding with the actual systems failures we could even institute a method whereby after the message ended the caller would have 20 seconds of the tape to vent his frustrations as a systems user the suggestion could pay for itself because NSA would then accumulate all these 20 second rages into 18 and a half minute segments and sell them to the GSA who would play them on tape decks hidden in statues to keep pigeons at a respectful distance or better yet when an essay Walker hasn't wished for a way to prevent birds from roosting you've got another name for it along the cover portion of our sidewalks cleaning bills alone could offset the expense of the suggested application now just to show you what I have in mind as the type of excuse that users are looking for here are several examples one in accordance with provisions of the fair labor standards the computer is at lunch two when we fed all NSA's rags and procedures into core the computer blew up three standby crew just stood by four an enraged bull gored the CPU and all electrons leaked out five the main friends been recalled by the manufacturer there's some problem with the maybe gates six an amorous elephant tried to mate with the CPU we expect a doubling of processing capability in about two years seven the orthodontist is here now trying to correct the computer's overbite sure I realize this suggestion isn't going to keep our systems up any more of the time than they're up now but at least users can be provided with a slight diversion from this arcsum and perplexing problem maybe two the competition to get an excuse accepted will increase systems utilization reduce sick leave and improve morale that last E was changed from ass by the sensor we would require hundreds of excuses per week so conceivably everyone in the agency could eventually win anyway what could it cost the NSA to offer a token prize for an accepted excuse I think our people would be satisfied with a hammer a chisel and a slab a rock then they could create their own data files end of the yawn of the computer age