History of Kites | Hacker News Reader

History of Kites

kite.org

95 pointsDoreenMichele18 comments

In my youth, I participated in "kite fighting," a popular activity in my home country. During these battles, opponents maneuver their kites, attempting to cut each other's kite string through tricky aerial tactics. We used special kite strings coated in thin glass. The victor's prize was getting to keep their opponents kite. Around January, during the kite festival, there would be hundreds of kites in the air all dancing or playing with each other. A magnificent sight.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/19/three-children...

This can lead to some very tragic outcomes!

they ought to have neck protection for sports like this

It's not really a sport where you meet on a field so it's kinda tough to enforce. Everyone is out on their roofs flying kites (according to what little of it I've seen in Rishi and Jen's segments on TLC's 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way)

Wow, didn't realize this innocent sport could be so cut-throat.

In the late 80s/early 90s when I was kite-battling, it was common to use these glass coated strings. I haven't played in decades, but it does seem quite dangerous now that I think about it as an adult. I'm glad the practice is banned.

We live in a different age today in terms of safety awareness. I vividly remember playing with powerful fireworks during Diwali celebrations. We'd light them in our hands and hurl them skyward moments before they burst. Today the mere thought of this makes me shudder, and I can't even imagine my children playing this way.

Disappointed to not see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Hargrave whose inventions were

. study of curved aerofoils, particularly designs with a thicker leading edge; . the box kite (1893), which greatly improved the lift to drag ratio of early gliders; . work on the rotary engine, which powered many early flying machines up until about 1920.

I only saw him mentioned with regard to the Wright brothers.

> Many of the experiments and developments during the 1800s led directly to the eventual development of the powered airplane and transatlantic wireless communications in the early 20th century.

The article goes on to explain that the Wright brothers we avid kite fliers, but doesn’t pick up the other thread about transatlantic wireless comms. I would presume it has something to do with lifting an antenna, perhaps?

I have no source for this, but I did read somewhere that the word "aerial" used to denote an antenna derives from early experiments where kites were used to hoist a wire high up.

Evidently, "The Cradle of Aviation Museum" in New York has an exhibit of a replica "Marconi Kite". This was, I gather, a "Levitor" kite modified to lift an antenna.

Of this exhibit, the Museum's website says:

"A pioneer of the heavy-lift kite was Baden Baden-Powell, pre-WWI aviation pioneer and guiding force behind the Royal Aeronautical Society. In the 1890s he developed large hexagonal-shaped "Levitor" kites which were intended to be used by the army in order to lift a man for aerial observation. In 1901, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made the first successful transatlantic wireless (radio) tests by raising the antenna 400 feet by means of the Baden-Powell Levitor Kite. Marconi also experimented in shore-to-ship radio communication from Babylon in 1901, possibly using these kites to raise the antenna."

https://www.cradleofaviation.org/history/exhibits/exhibit-ga...

Pretty neat! Imagining Marconi's experiences with his first wireless radio communications fills me with wonder. How fascinating that must have been.

Before drones I took million pictures from kite. Unfortunately Wikipedia Asswipes have removed all "Kite Aerial"-tags, against CC rules.

https://www.google.com/search?q=timo+noko+site:wikipedia.org

That's a very cool hobby and you got some cool results which I'm sure you're proud of. I wonder if you might briefly explain your technique?

I had all kinds of stuff in 20 years, explained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_aerial_photography

This is an example of a propeller-powered camera rig for the archipelago. It did not need to be particularly safe or stable: https://youtu.be/0P-wd3qzCBA?t=308

Just seeing the domain stressed me a bit because it made me think of kite.io which became kite.com. What an annoying app that was, the way it set itself to start on system startup and popped up when I tried to use my editor.

Was really hard to get working for some reason - think I had it installed for ages without it actually doing anything.

Fun fact: The modern, gliding square parachutes we are familiar with today, was invented as an evolutionary development of a kite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parafoil

That was interesting. Thanks for the unexpected quality distraction.

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