The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1900-05-24
NEW IDEA ABOUT RAIN.
PROOF THAT IT Is CAUSED BY
ELECTRICITY.
Enignas of Nature Solved During Some
Remarkable Experiments at the Elmer
Gates Laboratory Near Arlington
CYCLONES ArtificialIy Reproduced.

| Enignas of Nature Solved During Some
Remarkable Experiments at the Elme.
Gates Laboratory Near W ashington-
CYCLONES Artifcially Reproduced.
The phenomena Of the earth's rota
ton, OF transforms, cyclones, water
spouts, thunder and lightning are be-
ing artifcially reproduced in the course
of some remarkable experiments at the
Elmer Gates Laboratory, at Chevy
i Chase, near Washington.
Professor Gates, the famous phys!-
cist who directs this..fascinating work
shop, has long been conducting elabo-
rate researches looking to the solution
of these enigmas of nature. AS re-
suit of this labor he has deduced some
surprising theories which, in the opin,
ion of many learned men, will effect a
complete revolution in present meth
DDS of weather forecasting.
Many OF these important discoveries
were made with the assistance Of the
late H. A. Hazen, professor of meteor
ology at the United States Weather
Bureau, whose accidental death oc-
Cured a few weeks ago, just as the
work was drawing to close.
The early experiments of the two
Investigators were made for the pur-
pose of ascertaining natures method
of ralnmaking. The most widely ac.
cepted of theories hitherto offered in
explanation of this process assumes
that when moist air is carried from
one region above the earth to another
which is colder, it undergoes conden-
sation and vice versa. Professor Gates
and Professor Hazen both doubted
that heat and moisture were the sole
factors concerned in storm production.
Professor Gates had long believed that
electricity played the most important
role in weather-making, and he set
about to convince his collaboration that
he was correct.
In the initial experiment large
fluffy mass of fleece cotton was sus-
pended from the ceiling of the labora-
tory by dry silk thread, and was
electrically charged by one pole of a
powerful static machine. The other
pole was connected with similar
mass of cotton.
As the two tufts were being charged
they grew perceptibly larger. Brought
nearer, they grew smaller. When
sufficiently near or sufficiently charged
for a spark to pass between them, as
lightning.fash passes between two
clouds, they twitched at the moment
OF discharge.
The two tufts were afterward filled
with smoke pulled into them through
tube. Some of this smoke was
elected by each at the moment spark
passed. When a certain distance
apart, the smoke left one of the masses
and proceeded in a straightline to the
other. Thus the electricity actually
carried the vapor from one to the
other.
Then steam was injected into one
.uft and some OF its moisture was
similarly conveyed to the interior Of
the. other, as proved by an instrument
for measuring humidity. 1t was
noticed that although one piece Of
cotton would increase in volume
when first charged with electricity, it
would begin to shrink as soon as It
induced an opposite charge in some
adjacent mass of matter.
A volume of moisture-s saturated air
-ms next enclosed in rubber toy
balloon stspended by string. The
balloon swelled when n'hi1EAa.y h1E5Aa.y charged,
but shrunk when in the presence dr9s
body charged with opposite electricity,
When succession OF sparks passed
into the balloon it appeared to take q
sudden expiration, then an insplra-
ton Immediately "fter@ard.
These and otner experiments proved
to the satisfaction of the two in7esti'
gators that electrical conditions are
capable of increasing and diminishing
the density of the air.
In later experiment moist cur
rent of air was charged with negative
electricity as it entered the laboratory
through an open window. A similar
current from another source was
charged with positive electricity. AT
distance between the two iulets and
where the two currents mingled o
mist was seen to form. It was this
successful attempt at rainmaking in
doors which is believed to have solved
the problem as to how Dame Nature
herself aggregates the moisture OF the
air into mists, rain or snow.
Accordingto Professor Gates, if one
locality or cloud acquire charge OF
electricity, some adjacent locality or
cloud must acquire charge of oppo-
site electricity. Midway between these
two oppositely charged clouds or
regions of moist air there must be one
or more secondary regions where their
respective particles commingle. Those
of one being positive and those of the
other being negative they attract,
cohere and form raindrops. One
region may be cloud or vapor-
charged air mass, and the other may
be another cloud or the earth. When
disturbances of the! electric equilib,
rum of Ithe atmosphere occur differ
ences in density, pressure, tempera-
ture and moisture result.
Returning to the cotton tufts, it was
discovered that when one was charged
with positive, the other with negative
electricity, and the former only was
saturated with smoke, injected into
its centre, the smoke escaped toward
the opposite tuft and assumed conf
cal clord-like shape, its particles tray
cling across the intervening space in
the form Of a waterspout. This was
repeated many times.
Rr cnnnectinn one tarminal of his