Historical |
On this page we would like to give you a
small insight on how kite building has developed over the last 130Years. As
my Homepage has a limited amount of space, we shall concentrate on only a
small group of Kite builders.If you would like to know more about Kite builders
there is a wide range of literature to be obtained. Through the following
list you can also find links to interesting pages about kites. The inventor
of the Telephone and Gramophone :
Alexander
Graham Bell.
Also experimented
with kites. Although at first it was more out of fun than research.
Bell at first built Weelwingkite, he then
developed the Tetraeder. In 1905 while testing with different combinations,
one of Bell’s men was lifted by pure accident to a height of 10m by his already
well known kite Frost King. In 1907 with a much larger version of the Frost
King, Lieutenant Thomas E.Selfridge was lifted to a height of 51m.The Tetraeder
was also pulled by a steam ship but
unfortunately after
a flight lasting 7 Min the kite was destroyed on landing.In the Alexander
Graham Bell Museum in New Scotland there is still a large collection of his
kites to be seen.
The first person to fly in a kite was:
Charles
J.Lamson.
Lamson began to experiment
with a Hargrave Box Kite mid 1896.The pilot could also regulate the kite through
different wing settings.One year later Lamson built a double winged kite and
this gave the kite more stability.The so called Aero curve kite is probably
the nicest looking historical kite there is. The double and triple wing kites
that Lamson built were the forerunners for the later to come Bi and
Tri Planes. The experiments that Lawrence Hargrave made with kites were
basically to try
and develop a motorised flying object.Hargrave,born 29.1.1850 in Greenwich
England emigrated to New South Wales (Austalia) in 1866. He was a remarkable
and conscientious Man.He refused to patent his inventions, he believed that
everybody should have the benefit of his ideas. He made very detailed notes
about his inventions and is basically the father of the Box Kite.His experiments
with aerodynamics were the basics used in the development of the double and
triple winged kites. Unfortunatley because of many failures in his experiments
his finances declined and he had to cancel any further development of his
inventions.The Box Kite, which was his idea was later further developed by
Samuel Franklin Cody.
If you want to know more about Kite inventors click here.
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