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Working
on Historical Kites
US
Patent 886.159, April 28, 1908 [1]
(Fig. 1)
“Aerial
Apparatus”
Working on historical kites with, most of the time, a
minimum of information is quite a job of guessing, trying to get a
touch of feeling or understanding of the original inventor’s
thoughts about construction, design, and his aeronautical
knowledge.
Last week, for instance, I received a picture from
France of a giant kite which was launched from a marine vessel.
Although it is a very clear picture of a flying kite, it doesn’t
give you any information about the technical construction of the
frame. bamboo or wooden rods, metal fasteners or not: many questions
to answer or to guess to my best knowledge. The only thing that is
sure is that this kite has to be built because of its mathematical
beauty.
So if I have finished this kite and it would be
possible to meet the designer, he would immediately recognize his
own design, and this would start a most interesting and exciting discussion about
the difference of the construction solutions I chose and the ones he
made let’s say one hundred years ago.
(Fig.
2)
Looking back on the Sellers project, there was just
this kind of moment. Halfway through the project, after choosing the
size of the kite and puzzling all the sizes of the kite together
fitting to scale, I got copies of some pages of the technical
diaries of Matthew Sellers himself. The really exciting moment was
reading about his daily experiments and building activities, page
after page getting the feeling that I was looking from his shoulders
at his work, recognizing the same interes t and fascination about
the work from Woglom (and that he had Woglom’s book Parakites
[2], which is very high on my “should have”
list).
Reading all this, I got the feeling that this time the
job was done quite well. Only the measurement of the kite was somewhat bigger then
Sellers was used to. But he did make one bigger kite of the size I was working on. So
I allowed myself to continue with the work that was done and didn’t
have to do it all over.
In the mean time, the assembled parts of the kite
didn’t easily fit anymore in my working room. This was not so pretty
because all the parts were ready and the adjusting of all the parts
together had to be done. But as always, everything worked
out.
(Fig. 3)
An
almost true copy
With the well described patent and the technical
diary, it was not difficult to get very close to the original kite.
The so-called Aerial Apparatus from the patent was noted
down as Bird Kite II in the diary, while “new Johan call
this model no. 2,” as Sellers wrote February 10, 1904. With his
precise descriptions he made it very easy to reconstruct his kite
even in the smallest details.
On figure 3 for instance, you can see the wing
adjustment hook on the patent. This hook is placed in the
cylindrical tail as shown in figure 4, a close up of the rebuilt
kite.
(Fig. 4)
Sellers, who seems to be particularly proud of the
coupling rods (see figure 4) on his Bird Kite, wrote in his patent:
“In this construction the coupling bar 2 is bent between its ends to
form an eye 3 and line wire 1 passes along the shank 4, through the
eye 3 and is given one or more turns about the eye and then several
turns around the shank, then one or more turns at 5 around the line
wire, then several turns around the shank back to the eye, then one
or more turns at 6 in the eye.”
So it was very clear how this kite had to be built. On
the other hand, when there is only one picture that shows the shape
of the kite, and it only gives you an idea about the dimensions and
nothing more – such as the picture from France I got last week–,
such a project gives you lots of freedom. Everything you do fitting
within the time period the kite has been photographed is okay. You
are not making a replica, just a
sketch.
But what to do with another project waiting on my
desk, which is well described with a clear set of drawings, but from
which half the drawing is missing? Go on with the search for the
missing drawings or start building the kite with what there is, so
that half the kite is a replica and the other half the best guess
you could make?
Sometimes you get the information you need just after
finishing your kite. You finish it, go to your kiting field, make
some photographs, publish your enthusiastic stories, and just after
that you get an email with something like: “You did a good job, but
it is a pity you placed the sticks in the middle. I have some old
photographs with the stick one third from…” Then you are both happy and a little sad. Sad because you
apparently did something quite wrong, happy you got some desperately
wanted information.
Hunting
for the right materials
Almost
as exciting is the search for the right materials: cotton, toile
d’Alsac as the French call it, maco or nanzuk for the
German and cambric, nainsook or Egyptian cotton for the British and
American people. All are, in the right specification, not so easy to
obtain these days.
Research,
experimental building, and test flying is great fun. Exciting enough
to keep spending hours reading old books or sanding spruce sticks
and writing a little about it. Keep in touch at www.firstkites.nl.
Jan Westerink
In the last issue of Discourse, author Ben Ruhe
introduced us to Jan Westerink’s work to build a Matthew Sellers
kite replica. See “Spotlight on an American Flight Pioneer:
Enthusiast Brings Old Kite Back to Life” in our August 2008 issue.
[1] The
patent sheets are free at: www.espacenet.com
[2] Woglom,
Gilbert Totten. “Parakites, a treatise on the making
and flying
of tailless kites for scientific purposes and for recreation,”
NY, G.P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1896.
Published
before in the on-line magazine: Discourse, December
2008, Volume 1, Number 3 
See for more building info and pictures from April
2008 and before weblog: Projects in Progress, Weblog, Jan Westerink
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