The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-12-08

we rejoined them. Five bags,
each containing five pounds OF the ex'
plosive and a Illuminating attachment
were suspended on mesquite trees
about fifty feet away. 1 felt a very
decided blow on the side of my body
turned toward the explosive, due OF
course to the rectilinear displacement
of the air, but no trace Of the spiral
motion which figured so largely in
the theory of the generals. A cloud
of white smoke was formed, and the
mesquite trees were partially dam
aged. / went forward to observe the
effect. The experimenter', notebook
in hand, were discussing which mix
ture produced the most vol
ume." What they meant by 'vol'
umen | do not exactly know, only II
was not volume of rain,
Mr.. Dickerson of Chicago and Mr.
King of Washington, two of the capt.
talists interested in the experiments,
had now arrived. These gentlemen,
[ understand, with ex-senator Far
we'll and other capitalists of Chicago,
are supplying the money for these ex-
periments, the government re5ervlng
the appropriation OF 1000 for trial
in the dry season of the year. Mr..
King was quite enthusiastic. "Gen-
eral - he exclaimed. "there is a black
cloud above, let us pull down some
rain from it.u "No," replied the
general, II wish we were out on the
prairie, for the people will think
these trials are attempted to BRING
| 4
write that he was q witness TO the
fact that none was produced"
The manager of the Alamo Heights
company was in the crowd, and he
remarked to me that he did not know
what to think of the experiments. He
understood that they came to make
rain, but on arriving they gave him
orders to keep the reservoir we'll filled
with water from the spring.
The general invited the capitalists
and myself to accompany him to the
roof of the hotel in order that he
might explain the plan of operations.
Arriving there he said:
"The first duty of a general Is to
choose his line of battle. There is the
city to the south. You observe that
ridge to the north. shall place my
batteries on the ridge to front the
clouds advancing from the south. l
shall also place battery on the ridge
to the south beyond the city. The
balloons will be sent up from the camp
below, and shells will be projected
from the brow of the hill over these
fields to the west. | shall direct the
operations by signals from the roof.
AS we cannot depend on sunlight we
must use flags to signal with"
"Your idea,n l observed, Sin choos.
ing this circular ridge and two oppos-
ite batteries is to concentrate concus-
sion as much as possible in the center
of the'basin and to fire so as to start a
whirl in the air."
mo, it is to spread the conclusion
over the adjoining country. The wind
will watt it away to the north" The
general evidently had the idea that
the wind carries away conclusion as
it does smoke, and that the concus-
sion persists In the air like the smoke,
which is, of course, entirely false. A
conclusion, even of his biggest balloon,
dies away in very few seconds and
leaves nothing behind it but little
heating in the air. After descending
from the roof the general remarked in
reference to his plan: "In these opera.
tions great deal depends on STRAIT
egy." Having ascertained that the
battle on the clouds would begin on
the Wednesday, l left for Austin.
On Tuesday afternoon a ballon as
cension was made by Mr.. Ellis in
order to obtain for the general intor-
nation about the state and move
ments of the ayr to guide him in
directing his operations. | asked Mr..
Ellis afterwards what he observed in
the course of his ascent. He observed
what is we'll known that there is over
the earth layer of air 1000 feet thick
about as dry as that at the surface,
above that another layer of 1000 feet
more nearly saturated, and above that
again layer of dryer air.
On returning to San Antonio on
Wednesday found that though the
had been made the
day before, the battle with the rain
clouds would not come off that day.
at the camp | found the
party making experiments with
shells made from MANILA paper six
inches in diameter and charged with
two pounds of roselite. The she'll was
fired by charge of gunpowder from
a mortar, and fuse ignited by the
gunpowder caused the roselite to ex-
plode high up in the air. The mortar
was some distance down the
hill. The gunpowder was
ignited by means of an cleo
trio current furnished by a hand dy-
namo stationed at the brow of the hill.
The fuse was timed to ignite when
the shell was at height of 1000 to
1900 feet. 1t sometimes ignited much
sooner. There were many black
clouds in the sky overhead, but they
regarded the shell in the light of
firecracker.
Thursday morning dawned cloudy.
The battle could not begin. 1t was
Thanksgiving Day and it would not
do to deprive the soldiers of their
Thanksgiving dinner. During the
forenoon the company of soldiers
twenty men from the forty were kept
busy preparing the roselite and car
rying it to the encampment at the
ridge. About 5000 pounds had been
prepared in bags OF five and ten
pounds. During the afternoon a party
of officers and ladies from the fort