These factors were key in development of the Mount Weather Research Observatory in the early 1900's, where balloon usage was thoroughly explored. Early use of captive balloons to reach the desired height proved to be of little use, and tests using both kites and balloons were also unsuccessful. It was recognized that the strength of the wind would be a highly variable factor in kite heights. One such flight reached a height of 7,000 feet. Early efforts by William Eddy at the Blue Hill Observatory near Boston in 1894 used five kites tethered together to reach a height of 1,400 feet. Marvin's work utilized a box kite design by Lawrence Hargrave, tethered to the ground by piano wire. Marvin, in charge of the Weather Bureau's Instrument Division (and later Chief of the bureau), was directed by Moore to study methods for sustaining automatic instruments at high elevations. The difficult is to devise appliances, which, while captive, will carry automatically recording instruments to the proper elevation under all conditions of wind velocity and variable direction but the obstacles do not seem to be formidable, and it is believed that they can be successfully overcome." It is therefore desirable that upper air readings should be accomplished by this Bureau to determine the accuracy of these theories, and that synoptic charts baaed upon readings at an elevation of not less than two miles should be prepared, showing the conditions prevailing at that altitude throughout a considerable portion of the country. For twenty-five years we have been making readings at the bottom of the great ocean of air, while many believe that the subtle forces which combine to initiate storms and the constant accretion of forces which augment their energy as they move eastward, or which at times cause them unexpectedly to be dissipated after having reached a great degree of storm intensity, may be operative at great elevations. "It is, therefore, highly essential to push forward such lines of scientific investigation as give the greatest promise of fruition. Willis Moore, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, wrote in his annual report in 1895: Early in the history of the agency, the Weather Bureau recognized that measurements of the upper atmosphere were critical to expand the science of weather forecasting.
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