Having only quite lately got back from the World's Fair Exposition at St. Louis, I feel that some short account of what has been going on there will not be out of place. Our Society was well represented there. Colonel Capper and Mr. Walter Eeid both took a prominent part in the meetings of the Aëronautic Conference, and also on the jury in the Kite Competition. It seems very unfortunate that we have not more interesting results to record. The Administration offered numerous large prizes in hopes of attracting inventors and being able to show some startling novelties. But these were not forthcoming. It is with much regret that I feel bound now to refer to this method of offering prizes.

At the present time kites are used to obtain information about the temperature and humidity of the air above us, and efforts are being made to construct a flying machine capable of carrying one or more persons.

At first sight it might appear as though there were no relation between these two matters, but they are, in reality, very closely connected. The kite is held by a string or wire, and the wind passing over the kite supports it and at the same time causes it to exert an upward pull upon the wire. To fly a kite in the ordinary way the first requisite is sufficient wind, but if the lower end of the string to which the kite is attached can be moved forward with sufficient rapidity, by fastening it, for example, to a fast steamer or motor car, the kite can be flown when there is no wind.

Since the report which I laid before the last meeting of the Permanent Council at, St. Petersbourg, the work of the International Commission for Scientific Aëronautics has been continued on a more extended scale.

In this paper I propose to speak principally of the work of the Commission.

But it will be impossible for me to avoid speaking also of the work carried on by our members outside the direct work of the Commission, and I hope at some future time they will themselves communicate detailed results of these their independent investigations.

So far, the Commission has met twice, and has shaped its work on the advantageous base of these direct interchanges of thought.

No one can reasonably deny that panoramic views taken from a moderate height give the best idea of the general features of a town or other locality. When we visit a new district we naturally mount a prominent hill or other point of vantage, and so obtain an impression of the surroundings; and the photographer takes his camera as high as he can to enable the lens to receive the view. Far more extended views are enjoyed by those who indulge in balloon ascents, and photographs taken from the cars of balloons are occasionally secured, and give those who stay at home some idea of the ground as seen by the aëronaut.

By the courtesy of Mr. S. F. Cody, we are enabled to reproduce some illustrations of his man-lifting kites which have not only aroused public attention, but that of the Admiralty and War Office. Mr. Cody may certainly be congratulated on the success that has so far attended his experiments in man-lifting with his winged-box kites. The trials with his system, both on the ironclads placed at his disposal by the Admiralty and at Aldershot, seem to promise that at no very distant future the captive observation balloon, limited in its use to fairly calm weather, will be efficiently supplemented on windy days by the observation kite. In a well-illustrated pamphlet on the subject which Mr. Cody has recently circulated, he thus describes his method of man-lifting.