The Oamaru Rain making Experiments.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 22 December 1891, Page 3

The Oamaru Rain making Experiments.

A public meeting in connection ■with artificial rain production was held on Saturday at .Oamaru at which the Committee appointed to carry out the experiments read their report on the subject. The report dealt- fully, with the three experiments made. After detailing the experiments the Committee say : — ••The conclusion that we have drawn from the experiments may be briefly stated as follows: -The atmospheric disturbances was so very marked on all three occasions in accumulating ram clouds that we bejieve there is far more in the practicability of the scheme than anyone is aware of, for, though somewhat, sceptioal at the outset we were made easy converts as to tht possible results and although these few experiments were far too limited to build a theory on. the results possibly being coincidences, they certainly offer great inducement for, more lengthened trials, and we offer our conviction for what it may be worth That passing moisture laden clouds can be intercepted and caused to part with their moisture by an explosion; and if our conviction becomes an established fact, there is nothing to prevent this district being one of the most prolific in the colony. The N.Z. Times writing on this trial quotes from the American newspaper, the Nation which shows the litter failure of the rain-making experiments in' Texas Directly the Washington attorney Dyrenforth left the charge of the department established by the United States Government, for a holiday, it was discovered'that (1) In rainy weather the experiments brought rain ; (2) in dry weather they brought none. The theory of the failure is simple enough. The rain4aid§n atmospheric currents are always in constant motion, travelling from 20 to 60 miles an hour. When a cannonade is followed by rain after several hours or days, the rain plainly comes from an atmospheric mass which was quite out of reach when the pieces ■were fired. If, then, there is any effect at all, it must be immediate. Now. can there be any effect ? The weight of the atmosphere is about twentyfive million tons to every square mile. Multiply that figure by the number of miles in the rainless district to be operated upon and then send out your dynamite bombs, and other paraphernalia. What will be the effect? The Nation answers the question thus : — " The effect of the jump of one vigorous flea upon a thousand ton steamer running at a speed af twentyjknots would be vastly greater than the explosion of a ten foot balloon upon this current." Under these circumstances it hardly seems advisable to continue the experiments further in this colony, unless it is necessary to find a suitable berth for some Government supporter.