HAILSTORM PREVENTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 235, 22 February 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

HAILSTORM PREVENTION

ENDEAVOR TO AVOID A LOSS OF ABOUT £6,000,000 A YEAR.

France being so largely an agricultural country hailstorms do enormous dam- • age, and all sorts of experiments have been tried to minimise this. The latest is the use of a new type of hail destroyer Which is being tested on a large scale. The device is essentially a very large lightning rod of pure copper grounded by means of a copper conductor. According to'.the theory of the inventors, these instruments', by their effect upon currents of atmospheric electricity, are capable of preventing the formation and fall .of hailstones. The French Government, through a special commission of senators and deputies, is studying the process, and has encouraged experiments, to be undertaken. A chain of hail destroyers of the new type will he established in important vine-growing districts which heretofore have suffered heavily from hailstorms. The great damage wrought by hail and lightning in, France each year, with losses estimated at approximately £4,000,000 to £0,000,000, will eause the experiments now under way to be followed with close attention.

It is claimed that the new "paragrele," with its multiple points and perfected apparatus, is capable of drawing such »reat quantities of electricity from the cfouds as to render them innocuous as to hail and lightning. The rods are erected at intervals of about six miles alono- a line transverse to the usual path of hailstorms. It is stated that encouraging results have been obtained thus far wherever the instruments have been placed. The new device is comparatively inexpensive ti) construct.