A Five-foot Malay Kite.

For the 5-foot kite we used two sticks of hickory 3/8 of an inch wide, 1/2 an inch thick, and each 5 feet long.  According to directions, one stick was laid across the other at a point two-elevenths of its length from the top.  Two-elevenths of 5 feet is a little less than 11 inches, and so we fastened on the cross stick 11 inches from the upper end of the backbone.  The sticks were not nailed together, because this would have weakened the frame just at the point where it was under the greatest strain.  Instead we followed the professor’s directions and tied cleats to each stick, as shown in Fig. 235, so as to form sockets.  Then the sticks were laid across each other, each stick fitting into the socket of the other, just like a mortised joint.  A coat of shellac on the bottom of each cleat glued it temporarily to the stick, after which it was very tightly bound with fine cord.  The stick and cleats were now thoroughly shellaced.  The end of each stick was tapered off to receive a brass ferrule of the kind used on chisel handles.  They can be bought at any hardware store.  At the end of the backbone we fastened hooks made of brass, bent to the form shown in Fig. 236.  The cross sticks were also provided with hooks, but these were double, as shown in Fig. 237, so that a hook lay on both the front and the rear side of the frame.

[Illustration:  Fig. 235.  Tying on the Cleats.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 236.  Hook on the Vertical Stick.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 237.  Double Hook.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 238.  Connection at Corner.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 239.  Bending the Cross Stick.]

The frame was covered with a kind of cloth called “percaline.”  The cloth was hemmed along each edge over heavy picture wire, and at each corner the wire was twisted around a small solid ring of brass.  The rings were now slipped over the hooks on the frame and then the cross stick was bowed back by fastening a wire to the rear hooks and drawing it taut.  Professor Keeler told us to tighten this bowstring until the distance from the wire to the cross stick at the center was equal to one-tenth of the length of the stick.  As our sticks were each 5 feet long we tightened the wire until the cross stick bowed out 6 inches, as in Fig. 239.  The belly band of the kite was fastened at one end to the lower end of the backbone and at the upper end to a wire hook at the juncture of the two sticks.  The hook was fastened to the cross stick by flattening the ends and running them under the cord used for binding on the cleats (see Fig. 240).  A buttonhole was made in the cloth covering to let this hook project through.  The belly band was just long enough, so that it could be stretched over to one end of the cross stick, as in Fig. 241, and at this point, that is, 30 inches from the upper end of the belly band, a brass ring was made fast, to which the main kite string was tied.  The kite possessed the advantage that it could be quickly taken apart and folded into a small space.