William Abner Eddy

Who was William Abner Eddy?

William Abner Eddy was an American accountant and journalist famous for his photographic and meteorological experiments with kites.

William A. Eddy was born to a wealthy family in New York City. His father was a reverend. William's experience with kites started at an early age: When he was 15, he successfully tied a lantern to a hexagonal kite. After graduation from the University of Chicago he returned to New York, where he would soon work as an accountant for the New York Herald. In 1887, he married Cynthia S. Huggins and moved to nearby Bayonne, New Jersey, where his cousin already lived. Their daughter Margaret was born on January 11, 1888 in New York City.

It seems that Eddy's interest in kites was renewed when he learned about recent advances. In 1883, Douglas Archibald used kites to measure differences in wind velocity. Alexander McAdie repeated Benjamin Franklin's kite experiments with an electrometer. In 1887, Eddy heard of Woodbridge Davis' maneuverable kites. Based on accounts of tailless diamond kites common in Java, he tried to fill in the missing details.