Spanish Experiments In Rainmaking

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 17, 8 November 1948, Page 5

Spanish Experiments In Rainmaking

Spanish engineers are trying to cause rain by piercing cumulus clouds with directed rockets carrying an explosive war head of gun-' cotton soaked in liquid air. Pedro Duran Far ell. one of the engineers, claims the experiments are the first of their kind in the world. Liquid'air and gun-cotton for rain making appear to' be a Spanish in - vention. Neither substance is- among the numerous chemical compounds that have been found to produce rain or snow in the laboratories ol the General Electric Company, where American rain-making chemicals have originated. Senor Duran said he recently had received word from the Spanish Air Ministry’that the Army’s Directed Projectile Section would co-oper-ate in the experiments. “Only one rocket in the target will be sufficient to bring rain,” he added. “For this reason it is expected that within a couple of years drought-emptied storage dams, can be filled with provoked rains.” Too frequent droughts are a double hindrance for Spain, which depends on storage water for hydroelectric power for industry.