The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-20
LYON IS A RA|NMAKER
A Scheme to Tap the Clouds at
Will.
ELECTRICITY. THE AGENT
Mountains Are the Negative Poles and
the Valleys the Positive - He
Wants a Capitalist to
Give Him a Lift. ;.

last until Tuesday of this week Boze-
man has been honored with the pres
ence of rainmaker. He was not of
the same stock as the rainmakers of
Rider Haggard fame, nor was he cloth
ed in garb of nature, with few liz
card SKINS snakes, human skulls and
so forth for the double purpose of
adornment and to strike terror into the
hearts OF the people. Bozeman's Wis
itor was jovial old gentleman of rs
winters, hailing from the foothills
above Livingston, clad in civilized gar
ments and who makes his living by
ranching and the toll and sweat of his
brow. Mr.. Lyon, for that is his name,
does not carry the ingredients to make
rain with him, but he has theory
which he does and it was for the pur-
pose of imparting this theory to Presi-
dent REID and other college professors
with scientific turn of mind, and also
to solicit the aid of Hon. Nelson Story,
or some other capitalist, should is
scheme be feasible, that he made the
journey across the range.
Mr.. Lyon has thought of his problem
ever since he was a BOY, residing in
New York state, when he used to both
err his father almost to death by asking
him unanswerable questions, but until
the last two or three years he has not
deemed 1t feasible on account of the
expense. His plan of procedure and his
theory are briefly as follows: Electric
ity, he says, is in it's infancy and
through its help and power, properly
controlled, will the rainmaking ques-
ton be solved. To secure and control
electricity there must be positive and
negative poles. In the air, at all times
OF the year, especially in the heat Of
summer, there are aqueous vapors or
moisture which need only the help Of
electricity to make the necessary
clouds, which of course, says the old
gentleman, is done by creating positive
and negative waves. The positive, he
contends, is about the warmest thing
this side of the hot place, and the neg
alive about as cold as the icicles on the
North Pole; the positive, or warm
wave, and the negative, or cold wave
penetrate the atmosphere and present
ly they strike the moisture, or aqueous
vapor, and cloud is formed and then
1t rains for an hour two or three or
even six hours at a time This is the
foundation of the theory, the way to
get the results is as follows: Take an
area 80 miles square. In the" center of
the area erect a large electrical plant
with all the machinery necessary to
terminate the electrical fluid, and
about 30 miles from the center at the
north, south, east and west corners
place storage batteries supplied from
the central station, from which radiate
lines Of ordinary wire for carrying this
electricity. AT the five stations Mr..
Lyon would place a balloon which
could be allowed to rise to heighth of
from one to five miles, controlled by a
wire rope attached to a windlass, and
let out and drawn in at will. When he
wants rain he will make the central
station positive pole and the four
others negative, then he let's the posi-
tive and negative poles, or balloons,
raise into the air on a very hot sum
mer day and they would send out cold
and hot waves like feelers, and pres
emily moist streak in the air would
be encountered when, siss, boom, zip
would go the lightning and the cloud is
formed. About this time all the milk
in that 60 square miles would turn sour
and the wives OF the ranchers would
have to take in their washing. The
rain is started, but the question Is how
to stop it. To do this Mr.. Lyon re-
verses lever, the positive pole is
turned into a negative and the four
negatives into positives, the air is
warm and the rain stops-very simple
when you know how to do IL. BY this
same scheme and plant springs could
be made to come earlier and falls would
last longer, and cyclones and typhoons
would have to go out of business. The
cost of constructing the necessary plant
would be quite great and Mr.. Lyon
feels that If he We're only a representa-
tive in the hnnSa Hp1ppa NJ
whisper gently in the ear of w. A. Clark
of Butte he might be able to secure
enough of senatorial gold to build it ir-
respective of capitalists. The old gem
tleman has worked and thought and
read on subjects pertaining to his the
DRY and electricity for 60 years. The
first idea was to build large towers at
the five stations, but that was too ex-
pensive to be thought of. and it vas
not until he thought of Benjamin
Franklin and his kites did he stumble
onto the balloon arrangement. Some
of his ideas are derived from watching
the thunder storms as they follow the
ranges. The mountains, lie
claims, act as the negative poles and
the valleys as the positive, and there
being more moisture in the mountains
the storm naturally follows their
course. He says people say he is in
clined to be a little bit luny, but he ar
cues Franklin and Morse and others
had to labor under the same disadvan-
tages as he is doing. OF course it is a
foregone conclusion the rainmaking
must be controlled by law, and the
plants looked after by expert electrical
engineers or the deuce will be to pay,
for if a storm was allowed to reach a
climax it would probably be the worst
that ever was seen in these parts, and
the whole of the rainmaking plant
would probably be blown to smither-
Gems. Mr.. Lyon has his theory and
plans filed with the secretary of agri-
culture and in the patent office. He is
well versed in religion, politics and
other matters, but as he remarked, he
IS 1.-The queerest old chick that ever
was" and he can talk faster and longer
than any other man in Montana, and
what is more important, perhaps, be-
ieves implicitly in his own particular
hobby.
Last Friday the agricultural college
was to receive a consignment of chem
cals, and they nearly reached their
destination. At Muir, however, they
got jolted about considerably by the
w nf