For years, since it departed from legend and lore, the kite has been thought of as a trivial toy. But history tells us that the kite is so much more than a toy.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

In June of 1752 Benjamin Franklin began to study the atmosphere with kites,which led to extensive meteorological work that continued for 150 years, until the airplane was developed.

Franklin was trying to determine whether the earth and sky functioned like the conducting layers of a Leyden jar in the presence of an electric charge.

The memorably demonstrated experiment in Philadelphia did prove that lightning is electricity. In June of 1752 the experiment was begun in some secrecy, with only the assistance and witness of Franklin's 21 year old son.

Franklin dreaded the possibility of the ridicule which too commonly attends unsuccessful attempts in science. Franklin waited until there was a storm and then proceeded to fly his kite made of silk, the silk would tolerate the pouring rain better than other materials available at that time. They waited a very long time and even considered calling off the experiment when Ben noticed a few threads of silk tied to the key were standing straight out, he then touched the back of his knuckle to the key and felt a shock. His enormous pleasure at proving his theory is legendary.

It's amazing that Franklin was not killed during this experiment, as others who tried to reproduce it were. Many people trying the experiment according to Franklin instructions were knocked on their butts. Even Franklin admits that he had killed many a turkey in his trials and had himself been knocked unconscious by a charge from one of his Leyden jars. He eventually learned to ground his wires.

Franklin's interest and experience with kites were not all work. Traction, the use of kites to pull boats, carriages, sleds, and other objects is one of their earliest applications. One of the first instances recorded in the west is a boyhood experience of Benjamin Franklin.

One fine summer day young Ben was out flying a paper kite. He came upon a pond which was a mile broad. He tied his kite off and proceeded to swim, and think about his kite. He wanted to combine these two pleasurable activities.

A brief account in young Franklin's own words from his autobiographical writings goes as follows:"...I found that by lying on my back and holding the stick in my hands. I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable manner. Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes round the pond, to a place which I pointed out to him on the other side. I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over without the least fatigue and with the greatest pleasure imaginable." During the winter Franklin also used kites to pull him along while ice skating.

There has been a great resurgence of kite traction over the last few years, with New Zealand's Peter Lynn's invention of the kite buggy: a low riding three wheeled buggy that is steered with the feet while the pilot is pulled along by a variety of kites that he/she flies. It is not uncommon to reach speeds of 30mph or more.

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HOMAN WALSH

Over a century and a half ago, the mighty Niagara Falls, once known only to the local Native Americans, was being transformed. Sightseers packed the banks of the gorge, with their numbers doubling every five years. Tourism was exploding upon this natural wonder. In 1845, railroad advertisements, calling it “The center of a vortex of travel”, both cheapened and glamorized it. The promoters of two major railroad lines, Canada’s Great Western and New York’s Rochester and Niagara, the forerunner of New York Central, touted Niagara Falls as the new tourism Mecca. The majestic sight of Niagara Falls, previously visited and viewed only by the fortunate privileged class, was becoming more available to the general public.

A bridge spanning the turbulent gorge was envisioned. It would provide a highway over the gorge and allow commerce and people to pass more freely between Canada and the United States. Charters were obtained in 1846 from the Government of Upper Canada and the State of New York for the formation of two companies that were to own the bridge jointly; the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge Company in Canada, and the International Bridge Company the USA.

There must have been dollar signs dancing in their eyes as they calculated that the number of tourists would double as soon as the bridge was passable. Even at a toll of 25 cents per passenger, they felt that the bridge would be profitable within the first year alone. Up until this time, the only way to cross the imposing gorge was to go upstream and take a turbulent ride in a small ferry. 

The joint commission knew very little about bridge building. They did not even know if spanning a gorge 800 feet wide and 200 feet deep was practical. The leading engineers of Europe and North America were polled and quickly gave a negative response and opinion of the projects viability. 

There were only four men who said it could be done; that building a bridge across the tumultuous Niagara River was possible. An interesting detail in this story is that all four of these men (Ellet, Roebling, Keefer, & Serrell), would each eventually build a suspension bridge across the Niagara Gorge somewhere between Niagara Falls and Lewistown; a distance of about 15 miles, all within a few years of the original Request For Information.

On November 9, 1847 after quite a contentious competition, an Engineer, described as swift and impetuous, Charles Ellet Jr. of Philadelphia, was awarded the contract to construct a bridge at the chosen site. Ellet, also known to be flamboyant, bold and ambitious, was extremely anxious to be the first man to bridge the Niagara River. This had been his burning desire since 1833 when he believed the Niagara offered him the greatest challenge. After studying suspension bridges in France, Ellet is quoted as saying, about the bridge across the natural chasm, that he did not know “…in the whole circle of professional schemes, a single project which it would gratify me so much to conduct it to completion.”  

The location of the chosen site was at the narrowest point of the gorge, immediately above the Whirlpool Rapids. The bridge was to connect the site of what was to become the Canadian village of Elgin (later Clifton, and then Niagara Falls, Ontario), with the American Village of Bellvue (now Niagara Falls, NY). 

Ellet was about to begin construction in January of 1848 when he was faced with his first obstacle. The building of a suspension bridge is commenced with the stretching a line or wire across the stream. However, it was the turbulent roaring rapids, the 800-foot wide gap, and the 225-foot high shear cliffs of the Whirlpool Gorge that made a direct crossing impossible. Ellet and his colleagues, to ponder this dilemma, held a dinner meeting at the Eagle Hotel in the Village of Niagara Falls, New York. The conversation revolved around various methods to get the first line across the Gorge. Ellet, himself, proposed the use of a rocket. A bombshell hurled by a cannon was suggested. Some thought a steamer might navigate the rapids, knowing that the Whirlpool Rapids would devour any smaller craft and that ferries were too far upstream.

Local ironworker, Theodore G. Hulett (future Judge), suggested offering a cash prize to the first boy who can fly his kite to the opposite bank. The promotional prone bridge builder probably enjoyed exercising originality, and invited the areas youngsters to a kite-flying contest.  

There was a tremendous turn out for the kite contest that was held in January of 1848. The kites began appearing on the Canadian side of the gorge, taking advantage of prevailing winds from West to East. The first to succeed in spanning the gorge with his kite, named the ‘Union’, was fifteen-year-old American, Homan Walsh. Homan crossed to the Canadian side of the gorge by ferry just below Niagara Falls, and walked the two miles along the top of the cliff to the location that the bridge was to be built. Homan had to wait a day for the wind to cooperate; it was a kite contest after all! However, on the second day, the winds were perfect and Homan’s kite went right up and flew high above the gorge. 

Homan’s kite flew all day and into the night. At midnight, as he had expected, the wind died and the kite began to descend. Then there was a sudden pull of the line, and it went limp. He realized what happened. Homan’s kite string had broken. It was cut on the edge of the sharp rocks and broken ice. The bad luck continued for Homan Walsh, the ferry wasn’t crossing the river because the broken ice made it too dangerous. He was marooned on the Canadian side in the town of Clifton for eight days. Fortunately he stayed with friends while he waited for the ice to clear enough to resume ferry service. 

Finally, after eight days, he was able to go back to the US side, retrieve his kite, and repair it. Homan Walsh then made his way back to the Canadian cliff side, where he was able to fly the kite to the opposite bank. There it was caught and attached to a tree. He won the kite-flying contest on (or about) January 30, 1848, and was awarded the cash prize. His cash prize was either five or ten dollars (US). Accounts vary, depending on publications. 

Why the kite contest, and commencement of construction, was started in the dead of winter, is difficult to comprehend, given the severity of the weather. In fact, the only reference found to weather was the listing of the ice jam that kept Homan Walsh on the Canadian side for eight days, and later as a cause of a construction accident. 

Eighty years later, Homan Walsh, then living in Lincoln, Nebraska, recounted that his most precious memory was this exploit of his boyhood – his part in starting the first bridge over the gorge.  

The day following the successful kite flight, a stronger line was attached to the kite string. A rope followed, and eventually a cable consisting of thirty-six strands of number 10 wire.

On January 31, 1848 the Buffalo Dailey Courier published this account; “We have this day joined the United States and Canada with a cord, half an inch in diameter, and are making preparations to extend a foot bridge across by the first of June. Our Shanties are erected and we have a large number of men at work. Everything is going ahead. Men are very busy laying out the town of Bellvue, and are making arrangements for putting up a large hotel. The situation is a beautiful one, and bids fair, in the opinion of many to surpass the town at the Falls. I will keep you advised of the progress.”   

Ellet then built two temporary, fifty-foot wooden towers facing each other across the gorge. There was 1,200-foot of cable that passed over and was anchored to the towers. The next challenge faced by Ellet and his bridge building team was how to get the materials, supplies, and workman shuttled back and forth across the gorge.  

It was time for another meeting in the Eagle Hotel Tavern. Over pints of ale, Ellet and Hulett designed an iron basket. The completed basket looked like two high backed rocking chairs facing each other. The iron basket would hang suspended from rollers on the cable and be winched from one side to the other by a man turning a windlass.  

Ellet, always in search of publicity, decided he would be the one to make the maiden voyage across gorge in the precarious cable car, going from one side and then to the other. On March 13, 1848 he wrote to the bridge companies: 

“Dear Sirs, I raised my first little wire cable on Saturday, and anchored it securely both in Canada and New York. Today (Monday) I tightened it up, and suspended below it an iron basket which I had caused to be prepared for this purpose, and which is attracted by pulleys playing along the top of the cable. In this little machine I crossed over to Canada, exchanging salutations with our friends there, and returned again, all in fifteen minutes. The wind was high and the weather cold, but yet the trip was a very interesting one to me - perched up as I was two hundred and forty feet above the rapids, and viewing from the centre of the river one of the sublimest prospects which nature has prepared on this globe of ours. My little machine did not work as smoothly as I wished, but in the course of this week I will have it so adjusted that anybody may cross in safety.”  

It wasn’t long before others were lining up to pay a fee and go for a ride across the gorge. It quickly became the most novel thrill of the Niagara. Ellet’s contract did not allow for him to collect tolls… so he didn’t. He charged $1.25 to “Observe first hand the engineering wonder of bridging the Niagara”. Often up to 125 people a day crossed the gorge, three-quarters of them woman. One man, so the story goes, took one look at Ellet’s iron basket and opted for the little rowboat passing as a ferry. Then he walked the two miles back to the bridge site to meet his wife, who was calmly getting out of the iron basket. Ellet’s original iron basket is currently on display in the collection of The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo, NY.  

Ellet completed his service bridge in July 1848. Going from bank to bank in a horse drawn carriage must have been astonishing. Charles Ellet Jr. was so impatient that he didn’t wait for the safety railings to be constructed on both sides of the span. He called for a horse and buggy, and standing with the reins in his hands, “Like a Roman Charioteer”, one newspaper reported, drove himself across the flimsy structure to the cheers of the spectators. The report also stated that women fainted at the sight and strong men gasped. But, as author Pierre Berton noted, “Women were forever fainting and strong men gasping in the records of that century.”

The bridge that was built with the aid of a kite was officially opened to the public in August 1, 1848. As bridges went, Ellet’s was somewhat primitive. It was 762 feet long and 8 feet wide. It was a heavy oak plank roadway suspended 220 feet above the river from iron cables, elevated on either side. It seemed originally intended more as a novelty for tourist or as a convenience for local residents, than as a commercial highway. 

Seven years later, however, using Ellet’s span as scaffold, a railroad suspension bridge across the Niagara was completed. To carry the traffic loads of the day, a suspension bridge of two levels was proposed. The lower deck would be for horse drawn carriages and pedestrians, and the upper deck for train traffic. They said it couldn’t be done, but an Engineer, John Roebling, had a secret technique. The secret was an invention he devised for the manufacture and winding of steel wire into cables. If he could only get them to let him try it! They did, he did, and on March 8, 1855, the steam engine London, weighing 23 tons, crossed the new double-decked bridge at a brisk speed of 8 miles an hour. 

All because of a kite!

Newspaper Accounts:

Buffalo Commercial Advertiser and Journal, Monday, January 31, 1948 (citing Iris of Niagara) – Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge

Buffalo Dailey Courier, Thursday, February 3, 1848 – Niagara Suspension Bridge

Niagara Chronicle, Friday, February 4, 1848 (citing Manchester NY Iris) – Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge

Buffalo Morning Express, Thursday, February 10, 1848 (citing Lockport Courier)

Buffalo Dailey Courier, Saturday, July 29, 1848 – The Suspension Bridge, Completion of the Foot-Way

Buffalo Commercial Advertiser and Journal, Monday, July 31, 1948

Buffalo Dailey Republic, Friday, August 25, 1848 (citing Iris of Niagara) – Suspension Bridge

Niagara Falls Gazette, Thursday, January 27, 1938 – A Peep Into The Past, by Old Timer 

Magazine Articles:
Scientific American, Vol. 2, Issue 14, December 26, 1846 – Niagara Suspension Bridge

American Kite Magazine, Summer 1991, Vol. 4, No. 2 – The Great Kite Contest, by Tom Allan

Niagara Falls Centennial International Kite Festival (pamphlet), Spring 1992  – So Who Is Homan Walsh?, By Bill Albers 

Books and References:

Niagara, A History of The Falls (1992), by Pierre Berton

Niagara Falls, Canada – A History (1967), Kiwanis Club, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls – A Pictorial Journey (1998), by Margaret Dunn

Charles Ellet, Jr., The Engineer as Individualist (1810-1862), by Gene D. Lewis

Niagara – River of Fame (1986)

Spanning Niagara – The International Bridges 1848 – 1962

The Niagara – Across the River, One Way or Another 

Many thanks to my research staff (Bill Albers) for his inquisitive mind and his dedication. 

Written, in Celebration, precisely on the 157^th Anniversary of the Kite Event

© 2005 M Robinson

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WRIGHT BROTHERS

Every school child learns that Wilbur and Orville Wright are credited with the invention (in 1903) of the airplane. What most school children don't realize is that the Wright brothers were also skilled in kite flying and riding. It was their years of kite flying that directly led to the invention of the airplane.

The early experiments of the Wright brothers involved studying buzzards and other birds, and flying kites. (Lawrence Hargrave was devising the first box kite in Australia. Hargrave had weather studies and possible military purposes in mind while experimenting with box kite designs. As soon as the Wright Brothers saw and flew a Hargrave box, they knew what shape their manned flying machine should take.)

Orville and Wilbur flew Hargrave kites as gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This is where the first manned flights would occur several years later. One day while flying box kites at Kitty Hawk, The brothers discovered that the kites provided enough lift to be able to lift a man off the ground.

In August of 1899, they built a biplane kite, also known as a warping kite. They discovered that by varying the position of the four lines attached near the kite's extremities, they could simulate the twisting of the wings of a soaring bird. This they called wing-warping lateral control; a method that was to characterize Wright's airplane for years to come.

The Wright's version of an aircraft had an important difference from that of Hargrave and others of that period who were looking for a safe, stable flight. Wilbur and Orville were looking for an unstable craft that could be controlled by steering. They achieved the ability to steer with the invention of their wing-warping lateral control. In 1900, they built their "No. 1 Glider", which they principally flew as a kite. In 1903, after many months of trials, the gas-powered "Wright Flyer" flew and became the world's first manned flying machine.

Alexander Graham Bell also produced a manned flying machine. In 1908, five years after the Wright Brother's maiden flight, Bell was the first to fly the skies over Canada. Bell's aircraft was also a bi-plane design. In fact, during the first decade of the Twentieth Century, Bell's experiments received so much more notoriety than those of the Wright Brothers that many people believed that Alexander Graham Bell rather than the Wright Brothers invented the airplane.

It was due to the experiments by Bell and the Wright Brothers using human riders, that the big breakthroughs in powered flight occurred.

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ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

The early years of the twentieth Century were a golden era of experiments with three-dimensional rigid kites such as the box kite and the Conyne kite. There was a purpose behind this kite-building mania. Most of the experimenters were looking for a design that would be strong enough and light enough to function as a heavier-than-air flying machine. Among the principal researchers was Alexander Graham Bell, already quite famous as the inventor of the telephone, who developed the tetrahedral kite.

The tetrahedron is theoretically the strongest, most rigid symmetrical structure that can exist in nature. Cover any two sides of the tetrahedron with fabric, and you have the basic cellular structure that Bell used in his kites.

Using tetrahedron cells to construct a kite has a number of advantages. The cells are rigid, and don't need extra bracing to maintain their shape. The kite itself is exceptionally strong and stable. A kite can be built to almost any size simply by connecting several tetrahedron cells together, and you don't need to use thicker and stronger sticks as the kite grows bigger. Bell, himself, built gargantuan man-carrying kites made of thousands of interlocking tetrahedron cells. One was made of 3,393 cells! The town near Bell's laboratory gained a new industry as workmen and seamstresses turned out thousands of silk covers.

Bell was a gentle and humane man who was concerned about the safety of his aeronauts. He chose to make the first man-carrying attempts over the waters of Baddeck Bay in a craft that would float, piloted by a man who could swim. Bell looked for ways to create increased wind pressure by using various forms of ground-power assisted flight. When the winds were light and he needed assistance flying one of his giant kites, he often used galloping horses to tow the kite into the air.

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Kites have been successfully used for military purposes for thousands of years. In 1942, Lieutenant Commander Paul E. Garber was an officer on the carrier USS Block Island. he was assigned to the US Navy's Special Devices Division to make aircraft recognition models. Garber had been flying kites since the age of five and had written a kite flying manual for the Boy Scouts in 1931. At the age of nine, he even witnessed one of the early flights of the Wright Brothers.

One day he made a kite and challenged a gun crew to use it as a target. This was more realistic than using clouds as targets as had previously been done. To the crew's exasperation, they had to fire many rounds before making a direct hit. The captain of the ship was so impressed with the demonstration that he ordered Paul to build more target kites.

As the gunners improved their shooting accuracy, Garber modified an Eddy Kite (diamond shaped) that could swing across the sky, loop, dive, climb and do figure eights. The five foot kite was controlled by a flier with a twin spool reel complete with a control bar and brake. A ventral fin and rudder on the kite provided the directional control. A silhouette of a Japanese Zero or German Focke-Wulf-190 plane silk-screened on a light blue rayon sail. At a distance (flown at 200 feet) the blue background disappeared, revealing only the kite's silhouette of an aircraft. Eventually the wooden struts of the target kites were replaced with aluminum so they would sink after being shot down.

The Garber Target Kite was credited with saving an aircraft carrier. One morning the gunners were stationed in their bays for target practice when a lookout sighted a Japanese torpedo plane approaching from a bank of clouds. Had they not been ready, the plane would have seriously damaged the carrier. Instead the gunners were able to down the Japanese plane. Hundreds of thousands of such kites were used in training gunners, at a great savings to the US Government in money and manpower.

Garber also used winged, triangular box kites (signal kites) to pass important papers from ship to aircraft. A cable with the package attached was strung between two kites. A passing aircraft would snare the cable with a hook and deliver the package to it's destination.

Paul Garber remained interested and active in flight and kites after WW II he became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution Air Museum, late renamed the Air and Space Museum. He is credited with collecting an incredible kite collection for the museum. No man has ever done so much to popularize the kite as an educational instrument.

He also lobbied Congress to remove the anti-kite legislation from the books in Washington, DC, and other areas. Thanks to Paul Garber there is the spectacular Smithsonian Institution Kite Festival each spring on the Mall at the Washington Monument. This spring will be it's 30th anniversary. Now people are able to fly year round at the site, which is currently the home flying field for the local kite club, the Kapital Air Korps. (...now Wings Over Washington)

In 1992, I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with Paul at a festival I organized in Niagara Falls. He has unfortunately since passed away, a great loss to all kite fliers.

The above text is a copy of the script researched, written and presented by Meg, as US Kite Historian, at the 1995 EPCOT WORLD FESTIVAL OF KITES in Disney World. All rights reserved. No reprint allowed without permission.
Copyright © 1995 Meg Albers

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