RAIN-MAKING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3201, 31 December 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

RAIN-MAKING.

Me George E. Curtis, meteorologist to tho recent Government rain-making expedition, discusses in the New York "Engineering Magazine" the recent experiments to produce rain by means of serial explosions " Examined in detail, with all the attendant circumstances, it is evident that the experiment has utterly failed to demonstrate that explosions can develop a atorm, or can produce a measurable rain, and they have been not only unsuccessful in result but meagre and trivial in themselves. After the conclusion of the experiments two members of the society continued operations at El Paso and at a point near San Diego, near Texas. The explosions are said to be on a more extended scale. But a careful study of the report of these operations and the attendant weather fails, however, to assure me that the results were any more conclusive. But while for all practical results, the explosions at Midland were a failure, they afforded one fact of scientific interest. In several instances when a dense, threatening cloud was overhead, a sharp datonation explosion was followed, after an interval of 20 or 30 seconds, by a spatter of rain, or, if it was already sprinkling, the blast was followed by a noticeable momentary increase of drops. The result occurred a sufficient number of times to indicate that the phenomenon was a result of the explosion. But this is not what the experiments were deigned to accomplish. It was supposed that rain might be producei? in measurable quantity whenever and wherever needed. The Government appropriation has been expended, and we are no nearer the desired result than before. Tbe mere waste of 9000dol is a trifle, but tbe misconceptions to which the reported successes have given riso render the matter vory sorinus. Charlatans and sharpers have not been slow to seize the opportunity. Artificial rain companies have sprung up, and are now busily engaged in defrauding ths farmers of the semi-arid States by contracting to produce " rights " to use their various methods. In South Dakota the subject lias become one of the vital questions of the day. This aftermath of rain-making experiments serves as an excellent warning. For tbe honour and good name of the Government and of science it would be well if we had seen the last appropriation to produce rain by bombarding the heavens, and the last expedition which should mislead the people by sending out premature and sensational reports.