GUNFIRE AND WEATHER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 218, 21 October 1916, Page 4

GUNFIRE AND WEATHER.

' J -lift :-:tiv .o.i-io-'-U v ■ M. Camille Flammarian, in an article published in the, .‘/Matin.” yesterday*, returns to the. much-debated subject of artillery versus weather.. The .cause of a rainy spell puzzles mankind, as.mu.eh. ag the question of how the apples got into the dumpling puzzled poor, George 111, There is a belief ( prevalent that sonic relation exists between bombardments and rain. The belief is not likely to be weakened in France by recent experiences, for the guns have been booming continuously.' Biit was the nain caused by the bombardment? is a very difficult question to answer. History, with smiling impartiality, provides data for. the theory of rain through gunfire, and also against it. Wagram was fought in glorious weather. There ’s one point against the theory. But Waterloo was followed, and even preceded, by heavy rains. A rainstorm of rare violence completed the discomfiture of the British after the battle of Saratoga, but the battle of the Marne was fought in almost tropical splendour, though it came to an end in thunder, lightning and rain. M. Flammarion also is non-committal. Without endorsing the theory, he docs not reject it. Indeed he supplies a possible explanation! —the bombardment fills the ain with microscopic dustgrains, which may serve as electric agents in the condensation of the mois-ture-laden air and the formation of .rain-clouds The idea seems plausible, and is recommended to scientific readers a subject for aesearch.