ARTIFICIAL RAIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 170, 7 June 1872, Page 6

ARTIFICIAL RAIN.

If, at the beginning of the Chicago conflagration, showers of rain could have been artificially produced, millions worth of property might have been saved, and probably a great many human lives. Famines spring, for the most part, from short crops, and short crops from droughts, and here again, if men had the power to bring down water from the clouds, serious disaster might often be averted. Professor Espy and others, perceiving the importance of the results attainable through the artificial production of rain, have striven to demonstrate its possibility. The magnitude of the necessary means, however, supposing the end to be practicable by any means, and the great cost attending their employment, has prevented satisfactory experiments from being made. A civil engineer of Chicago, Mr. Edward Powers, has now addressed to Congress a memorial on the subject, which includes irany interesting and plausible facts and suggestions.

Ia the first place, Mr. Powers claims that our late war, through its being to so great an extent an artillery war, and because of the greatly increased attention paid to meteorological statistics, has supplied corroborative evidence beyond any possessed before, of the possibility of artificially producing rain-fall. He points out that, while the first battle of Bull Run was fought on a bright, clear day, on the day after rain fell in torrents. Again, on the day following the close of the second battle of Bull Run rain fell heavily; and during the battle of Chantilly, fought two days after the last, a terrific thunder-storm came up, so violent as totally to drown the noise of the guns, while water swept down in such torrents that the ammunition could with great difficulty be kept serviceable. The first day of the battle of Pittsburg Landing was clear and beautiful; but on the night of the second, a fearful storm arose, accompanied not only by blinding sheets of rain, but by hail, which lay on the ground to the depth of three inches. Fair Oaks (or Seven Pines), fought by General M'Clellan, on the Peninsula, was succeeded by such tremendous rains that the whole neighboring country was flooded, and military movements for some days rendered impossible. Malvern Hill was attended with, the same phenomenon. At the battle of Perryville, it was observed that a great drought had prevailed for some time. Indeed, the fight actually began in a skirmish for the possession of a slender and dwindling creek that trickled between the two armies. But, the day after the struggle, heavy showers descended. The battle of Stone River (or Murfreesboro) began on a clear, hard morning of midwinter. Before the combat was over a heavy storm of rain set in. The battle of Fredericksburg was also fought on a sunny winter day, but while the national troops were crossing the Rappahannock, after the repulse, it began to rain copiously. Chancellorsville was followed by a tempest so heavy as to cause a flood in the same river, and to sweep away part of the pontoon bridges while our army was recrossing the stream. A tremendous rain came directly after Gettysburg, so severe as to check for several days the rebel army. The battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse, of Cold Harbor, of the North Anna, were each succeeded by rain; and, after the battle of Nashville, " the country was flooded and the brooks were raging rivers." Mr. Powers cites a great number of similar instances at engagements of less prominence, and, it must be owned, makes out a pretty strong case. It may be further added, that General Sherman's "march to the sea," which was an almost continuous fusilade, was attended by heavy rains at short intervals

and tliat, during (General Rosencrans' campaign in Tennessee (in June and July, 1863), tliere was rain daily for seventeen successive days. At naval battles tlie same tiling is said to have as commonly occurred. The action in Hampton Roads, made memorable by the dashing exploit of the Merrimac and the sinking of the Congress and Cumberland, was followed next day by rain. At Island " Number Ten " four separate actions were succeeded by four separate thunder-storms. When Forts Jackson and St. Philip were captured, a like phenomena were witnessed. At JSTewbern, after the capture of Roanoke Island, the same tiling occurred. The passage of the Vicksburg batteries by Admiral Farragut's fleet, June 28,1882, was attended by fu- | rious cannonading. The day was iair, but the next is recorded in the log of the Hartford as " squally, with rain, and j heavy thunder and lightning." At Fort Sumpter it was repeatedly observed that the heavy bombardments were constantly succeeded by falling weather. During the interval between the bombardment of Fort Wagner and its assault there was a terrific thunder-storm. Mr. Powers gives numerous other parallel instances. He says, too, that in the Mexican war, Palo Alto, Monterey, Buena Vista, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec were all followed by rain, although most of them were fought in the I dry season

Among European engagements where the same thing has happened, may be named Ligny, Dresden, Eylau, Valenciennes, Pesth, Solferino, Konigratz, Weissenberg, Woerth, Metz, Strasburg, and Sedan In general, the closer to our own time, and, therefore, the closer the observation of atmospheric changes, the more invariable the phenomena. Mr. Powers asks Congress to let him have three hundred pieces of ordnance, not less than twelvepounders, and to furnish him with twenty thousand blank cartridges of various weight, suitable to the respective guns, with ten miles of insulated wire, and an electrical battery with the usual appliances. His object is to fire all the pieces simultaneously at a suitable place, and at a time when the signal service shall declare fair weather to be pro.bable. He owns that the experiment will be costly, and that if rain could.not always be produced at less expense than here indicated, the theory to be tested might prove of little practical v alue. He, however, thinks the " number of guns and the amount of powder for which he asks are many times larger than would be necessary, if rightly used, to produce in large quantities, and with far less he would fear to fail, not because of the insufficiency of the means, but because the proper manner of using these means so as to produce the greatest result is as yet unknown." We apprehend, however, that in general the. observations recorded will show that the fall of rain in such cases bears a direct and proportionate relation to the violence and length of the cannonading, and to get a fall heavy enough to put out the; .Chicago fire, for example, the expenditure of ammunition would have to be very large. It is possible, nevertheless, that nitroglycerine, or some other explosive, may form, an economical substitute for gunpowder, and that parks of cloud-compel-ling artillery may yet supplement "steam fire-engines in protecting the underwriters and the public—New York 'Tribune.'