The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-12
THE RAIN-MAKlMG ROCKET.
NEW DEVICES FOR CONDENsING
THE MOISTURE OF THE AIR
BY MEANS OF ETHER.

Experts Declare Ii FeasibIe-Chcmi-
Gals to lie sent I'D in Rocket and
Discharged Mt the Hight of One
Mue-MethOd Perfected by Na-
tive of India.
Copyright, 1896.
new rain making device has just been
/ perfected by a native of india which
| is guaranteed to relieve the drought even
in the dryest of countries: and the opin-
| ion of several scientific experts seems 10
bear on the claims made by the inventor.
Agriculturists in this country will no
/ doubt soon have an opportunity to judge
/ for themselves of the merits, as its intro
/ duction here is only a matter of a short
/ period. Rain making win not be a new
/ industry in the United States. Prof by
renforth's experiments several years ago
will readily be recalled. owing to the
| crudeness Of the apparatus and the fact
that the art of robbing Jupiter Pluvius
of the sole power of opening the flood
gates was then in it's infancy, the results
were not entirely satisfactory. Indeed,
there were those who pronounced the
whole scheme chimerical, but their skep-
| ticism gave way in part before the proof
| that the professor literally called upon
! the heavens to produce. But while these
| experiments produced RAIN they really
only limited at the possibilities in this di-
/ rection. But now this native of a far off
| land has come forward with an appar-
| atus that meets all the requirements Of
| the situation. While taking as the ground
| work of his idea the generally accepted
/ theory that the moisture of the atmos-
phere must be precipitated by some chem
| ical process which VIII cause sudden
| change of temperature, the inventor has
| discarded the methods of his predeces-
sors in this line, and has devised unique
method of transporting his compounds
! to the desired hight. This, he thinks,
| should be about one mile-possibly more.
| The general principle is that Of the rain
! bow" skyrocket, the chemicals taking the
| place of the colored balls, and the rock
| cts being of gigantic proportions. Ether
| or ammonia are the agents by means or
which he proposes to transform the insen-
| sbe vapors of the air into water which
| will not drop like the gentle dew from
| the heaven upon the place beneath" but
| if his expectations are realized VIII iail
| in torrents sufficient to satisfy the thirst
| of parched mother earth. or the two
| chemicals the ether is preferable, owing
to its greater lightness and superior heat
| absorbing qualities.
AS is well known, ether is formed by the
| dstillation of a combination Of alcohol
and sulphuric acid. 1t Is great absorber
/ of heat, and is the chief agent used in the
/ manufacture of artificial ice Ammonia
is also a powerful cold creator, but not to
the same degree as ether; besides being
| heavier.
The method employed in elevating the
| chemicals is, as has been said, simple in
| the extreme. The apparatus may be di-
| Vided into four parts. There IS long,
| cylindrical cartridge, similar in appear
| ance to the vessels in which gases are
stored. This is to be about twelve feet
| in length and three feet in diameter. To
it's base is attached a coil spring, which,
when expanded, will reach to length Of
forty-five feet In the various compar;-
| ments of the cartridge are distributed sew
| en- hundred pounds of compressed ether,
| which, it is estimated, is an amount suffi-
| cent to so chill the atmosphere as to
| cause a rainfall heavy enough to saturate
| the ground for an area of several miles.
| Operated by this spring is a piston rod,
the movements Of which are automati-
| cally regulated so that IT explodes the caps
| liberating the ether in the various cham
| bers at the desired nights. The attitudes
| at which the fluids are to be released will
! vary with the state of the atmosphere as
| registered by the barometer.
To describe the apparatus in detail
would be difficult, and would involve
| such use of scientific terms that the read
| err would be mystihed rather than en-
| lightened. In brief, the cartridge is di-
vided into five compartments, four OF
| which are filled with ether. The spring
| has the same influence on the rocket
| that the tail has on kite. Like a sub
| marine torpedo, the cylinder is cigar-shap-
ed thus Offering less resistance to the
| atmosphere Gagged according to condi-
tons prevailing at the time when the
machine is launched, this piston rod may
be regulated to discharge the caps at the
desired hight.
Mr.. F. b. Smith, an eminent engineer.
who has devoted several years TO the
study of atmospheric phenomena, said,
when questioned as to the feasibility of
the plan: There is much to be said on
both sides. In the first place, it would
be a very easy matter to force rocket
up TO the hight of a mile. Secondly, the
fundamental idea is correct from a sci
entific point of view, for, as nearly ev-
cry one knows, all currents of air con-
tain more or less vapor. When a sub
stance which has a tendency to absorb
heat is introduced into these currents
the air is cooled. and by reason Of the
loss of heat a condensation of vapor fol-
lows. This is demonstrated by the fall
ing of dews each night during hot wealth
er. When the sun has sunk below the
horizon, the earth rapidly cools The
| moisture near it is thereby condensed,
and a deposit of dew results. There are,
| however several objections to the
scheme that suggest themselves to my
| mind. One is that, as it costs in the
neighborhood of 500 to discharge a potion
] modern gun, 1t would necessi-
tate a corresponding outlay for
| each discharge of these rockets: thus
| the rain would come very high Another
| objection to the scheme is that, to make
| the rainfall cover any considerable area,
| ii would be necessary to raise the rocket
| to a very great hight before the machine
| containing the ether is discharged. Now
| il seems to me that before the condensed
moisture could. reach the earth it would
| become vaporized again. because of the
| atmospheric pressure which induces heat -
| Mr. Erick Enequist, a consulting and
| manufacturing chemist. said in regard
| TO the scheme:
| yes. it is perfectly feasible, in my
| estimation. The only objection that
| can conceive is that Of the enormous ex-
| penss attached to the operation of dis
| charging the rockets and the subse-
| quent discharge Of the cartridge contain
| ing the ether. 1t would cost several hum
| bred dollars for a quantity of explosives
| sufficient TO force the rockets the required
| hight; and as II would require several
| hundred pounds of ether to condense
enough vaDofized moisture to make q
| rainfall Of any extent. the supply Of this
! material would be quite expensive. The
| market price Of ether is about 30 cents
/ a pound, and one can easily see that to
/ obtain any large amount of rain a very
large expenditure Of money would be re-
CURED.
/ yes. several other chemicals could be
easily substituted for ether. and at a