ELECTRICITY AND RAIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 940, 12 January 1911, Page 4

ELECTRICITY AND RAIN.

Some people in Great Britain are firmly convinced that the extensive use of wireless telegraphy has been responsible for the unusually large number of wet days experienced during the last two years. Their belief is supported to some extent by Sir Oliver Lodge. In the course of a lecture at Birmingham University last month Sir Oliver stated that if the nation would grant a sum of ,£IOO,OOO a year to the universities tor purposes of experiment, he would undertake to apply electricity not only to accelerating plant growth but to dispersing the fog Irom harbour stations and influencing weather as regarded clouds and rain. “I showed in 1884 to the British Association at Montreal,” he said, ‘‘that the discharge of electricity into smoky air, or air laden with metallic dust, would coagulate the particles, and so cause it to be deposited much more rapidly than if it were not electrified.” The famous scientist stated that a steam cloud blown from a boiler into a bell-jar could be condensed and turned into fine rain by a discharge of electricity. Minute particles of water came together under the influence of the current and formed drops. The process went on in the neighbourhood of thunder-clouds and caused the heavy rain usually associated with thunder. In countries where rain was desired, added Sir Oliver, it would seem, therefore, to be a practical plan to erect electric discharging stations, in order to persuade passing clouds to give down their burden ot moisture. An excessive rainfall might be remedied by the placing of stations at points irom which the penetration of clouds into the interior could be prevented. Sir Oliver Lodge expressed a hope that some person would be able to find the means to conduct experiments on a large scale and ascertain whether the artificial production of rain could be undertaken with any reasonable assurance of continued success.