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504
A KITE WINCH BALLOON
FOR OBSERVATIONS
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DIRECTING THE BIG GUNS
This unit power-driven winch and balloon combination, the new portable observation station which
will boused in France by the first United States detachment to cross the water, is simply a large sausage
type gas bag, carrying a "tail" to keep it headi'd in the wind, and controlled by an automobile motor, a
winch and a "dead man" pulley. The observer sits in a swinging basket, forty feet below the balloon,
and there directs—by telephone communication with the ground—the fire of cannon or the movement of
troops.