The San Francisco call., 1896-07-24
Kansas People Marvel at the
Wonderful Result of the
Experiments.
USE OF MYSTERIOUS GASES.
Clouds Compelled to Form and Easily
Turned Into a Great Storm
Center.

times, when Father Zeus sat on Mount
olympus and with beck or nod sent the
gods about their business, he little
dreamed that in a later age his glory
would be rivaled and his power surpassed
by a mortal man, but this very miracle
has come to pass. George G. Matthews,
THE Wichita Rainmaker," has only to
uncork his mysterious chemicals and send
the resultant gases skyward and straight
way history repeats itself, for at his call
not only does the rumbling chariot of
Zeus again clatter'across the heavens, but
Vulcan sings his firebolts and Neptune
breaks up the fountains of the great deep,
and the gods of the four winds dash great
niagaras of rain on the feyered prairies
till even the bullfrogs raise cultural pro-
test.
If Matthews is not bona fide success as
rain engineer, it is certain that the lucky
star under which he was born is still sus-
pended in space directly above him, for,
whether directly resulting from his ex-
periments or coming by merest chance,
the rains do come every time he goes after
them. Last year many people scoffed at
his pretensions, but the unvarying regu-
larlty with which rains have followed his
rainmaking tests has gained hundreds of
converts to his theory.
Alexander McAdie, writing in the Popu-
lar Science Monthly OF September, 1896
said: "Rainmakers of our time bang and
thrash the air, hoping to cause rain by
concussion. They may well be compared
to impatient children hammering on reser-
voir walls in vain endeavor to make the
water flow. Rain-control is O scientific
possibility. Successful rain engineers will
come in time, we venture to predict, from
the ranks of those who study and clearly
understand the physical processes of cloud
formation. Cloudland. for realm so near
us and so closely associated with our well
fare, has been sadly sighted by mans
genius"
Mr.. Matthews is not travelling mounte-
bank, but one of the solid business men
of Wichita, being a member of the hard
ware firm of Bissantz & Matthews, and
the fact that he has spent hundreds of
dollars of his own money in carrying on
the experiments is evidence that he is
working in good faith. He is a thorough
student of me:eoroIogy and a keen ob-
server of meteorological conditions.
The process of changing and thrashing
the ali" referred to by Mr.. McAdie as the
one employed by present-day "rain-
makers" is regarded by Matthews as
entirely Intellectual. His plan is quite
different. The mysterious gas is released
from four large jars filed with chemicals,
and passing up through four tunnels into
q central pipe, escapes into the air. 1t is
warm, almost colorless, and ascends very
rapidly.
When it reaches height OF from 5000 to
5000 feet, the height to which it ascends
depending on the condition of the atmos-
phere and point of operation, it turns cold
instantly and descends with a rush, Gre
atlng vacuum, into which the moisture
contained in the air rushes. forming
Clouds and they in turn form the storm
center. When the usual amount of ma
terial is used, Mr.. Matthews states that it
il possible to affect an area 125 miles in
diameter. still larger territory may be
affected if the proportions are increased.
The size OF the storm, he says, depends
upon the velocity and direction of the
wind, together with the temperature.
Matthews does not claim the ability to
produce rains at any and all times, but he
does claim that nature can be materially
assisted and rain be made to fall many
times when it would not otherwise.
ut is necessary in order to bring rain, u
said he, 'that there be two sets of clouds.
the cold or ice cloud and the vapor cloud.
The ice clouds are the clouds noticeable
while the experiments are in progress,
long-lined and white and forming in the
upper strata of the air."
The "ice clouds" cool the atmosphere be-
low them, forming cumulus clouds, and
when the latter condense rain falls. Much
has been written in condemnation of
Matthews by religious cranks, who regard
his experiments as insults flung in the face
OF the most high. A favorite text used by
these people is that found in the Book of
Malachi, 1888. "Will man rob God? Yet
ye have robbed me-" they quote, but
Matthews only pours more chemicals into
his big earthen jars, and the croakers are
compelled to run for shelter before the
drenching chemical rain overtakes them.