Page:Kitecraft and kite tournaments (1914).djvu/103

Rh ful, Figs. 188, 189, 190. Yellow and black, black and red, purple and white, green and white, and many other good combinations can be selected, but two or three colors are better than many. The best grade of tissue paper is very much superior to the cheap, as the tendency of the cheap to split out is very unsatisfactory and there are thin porous spots. The French tissues, so called, are the best, and they come in many shades of good colors.

Parachutes are other forms of balloon. They do not ascend from the ground, but are released up in the air and float downward. Sometimes a current of air will catch one and carry it far up and away. They are made like an umbrella covering, sometimes in sections and again in one piece, Fig. 191 and 192. When made in sections, they are very much like the upper one-third of a balloon. They are made from the size of your hand to beauties that are eight feet across; when made of brilliantly colored paper, they are very interesting. They have a weight suspended underneath to keep them upright in the descent. Parachutes are usually taken up on a kite line and are released well up in the air. The usual method of shaking them off the line is not as good as a definite release by a tripping string from the ground. If large ones are used, one at a time is sufficient and is simple to release. The parachute is tied with a bow-knot to the kite line with the extra string and as this string is pulled the knot comes untied and the parachute is released. When smaller ones are used they can be tied in a series and the lowest down on the string or the highest can be released, then the next, and so on. The same string can be used to tie on a long series.

No matter how small the parachute, it must have its suspension strings and weight. We have tried parachute showers that have only been a partial success, thus far. A bunch of these little parachutes each with its own string tied to the kite line, have been released, but in pulling them up they are so liable to get twisted up, that when released they cling together. If they could be carefully laid in some kind of an apron that would protect them from the breeze, I am sure they might be tumbled out so as to separate without entanglement. It is a very pretty sight to see a large bunch turned loose, each spread-