Last week, boys, I told you how to make a very simple kite. Now for a few variations from the usual commonplace plan. There are a number of novel designs in the way of kites that it only requires a little ingenuity to carry out.
Suppose that you want your kite for a travelling companion; It would be a very awkward piece of baggage, would it not? Well, you can make a very good kite of the shape shown in the illustration, covered with muslin, and the frame made to work upon a pivot, so that it can be folded and carried in a case. The muslin must be fastened permanently to one piece of the frame only; it must be simply tied to the others with small pieces of string. Thus, on being released, the laths may be worked round on the pivot until they are in a straight line, and the muslin wrapped round them. Sometimes they are made with only two pieces, an upright and a cross-piece, but the principle is the same. If expense is of no consideration, oiled silk is far better than muslin, since it is so much lighter.
In China, the boys about the streets of Hong-Kong have a very amusing and simply constructed kite, which can be made to perform the most astonishing gyrations in the air. You might be inclined at first to doubt if the thing could go up at all; but just give it a fair trial, and see. You will be surprised at the ease with which it catches the air and mounts upward.
The kite is composed of two very thin slips of rattan, or bamboo, properly smoothed, and a piece of colored tissue-paper cut in the form shown in the above diagram. The middle stick is flat on one side, and should be eighteen and a half inches long; the bow stick should be twenty-five inches long, and nearly round. The paper should be cut to measure fourteen inches on each side.
Lay the middle stick, well covered on the flat side with good stiff flour paste, diagonally across the paper, fastening it at both ends with bands across, and let it stand till dry; then fold down the upper corners of the paper over the bow stick, pasting it down firmly. Add a small fan-shaped piece of tissue-paper for the "bob-tail," and the kite is ready. Fasten one end of the "belly-band" to the two sticks where they cross, and the other end about the same distance from the tail of the kite. Be careful about adjusting the balance when tying on the string, as if that is not right the kite will not fly upward.
As to the decorations of his kite, each boy must follow his own fancy, remembering that, since the effect is to be produced from a distance, only the most glaring colors can be used, and that fine and finished details will be of no use whatever. One of the prettiest kites now in use is that which represents a hawk with outspread wings, and it can be purchased at almost any toy store. But if any boy will be careful in his work, he can easily make one. The frame must be made of cane or some very light and flexible wood. When in the air it will sweep backward and forward with movements exactly like those of a hawk when wheeling about in search of prey.