Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1895 — A FLAG IN THE CLOUDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A FLAG IN THE CLOUDS.

Spectacle to Which New-Yorkers Were Treated. The man who flung the stars and stripes to the winds of heaven at an altitude of 2,500 feet at the dedication of the Washington arch was Gilbert F. Woglom, a Jeweler. He is, he says, a student of aero-dynamics. He is a scientific kite-flyer. The line that held the flag was suspended from six kites. The people who cheered and got themselves into a true Fourth of July spirit saw only four kites. That was because one of the kites was blue, and was literally out of sight in the sky. A second kite struck a stratum of wind that carried it away from the others so that it did not attract attention. Mr. Woglom, Prof. William E. Eddy, of Bergen Point, and Capt. Isaac Cole, an old sea dog, went up into the tower of the Judson Hotel at 2 p. m. Saturday. He took six kites into the tower with him, all stretched on light but strong frames of spruce wood aud braced with line copper wire. The wind at first was blowing at about thirteen miles an hour. The three experts on kites first sent up one covered with red China silk and for-ty-two Inches long and broad. To this kite was fastened the main kite line. At a certain distance from Grace another kite, the Lady Harriet, was attached to the main line by a whip line. The Lady Harriet is covered with white

China silk and is forty-six inches long. Then the kite Dainty, the sky-blue one, which is fifty inches long, was sent up in exactly the same manner; then the Bullet, fifty inches long and covered with buff-colored rope manilla paper; then the Rockwell, fifty-six inches long, and then the kite Dick, fifty-two inches long. When the six were straining at the main line, Mr. Woglom tested their pull with scales such as icemen use, and found they had a pull of sixteen pounds. The flag was of bunting, eight feet long, and with its staff weighed one and five-eighths pounds. The top of the staff was securely fastened directly to the main kite line; the bottom of the staff swung loose, save that a piece of stout twine long enough to keep the staff at a constant perpendicular was extended between it and the main line. Up went the flag, unfurled itself, and stood out stiff as a board—radiant and beautiful, 2.500 feet above Washington square.—New York World.

HOW THE FLAG WAS RAISED.