The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-14
HATFIELD CLAIMS He
CAUSED CLOUDS TO WEEP
Los Angeles Man Modestly Admits
He Is Responsible for Rain
fall in California.
EXPLAINS HIS METHODS

LOS ANGELES, Cal, March 13.-Fresh
from his tussle with Jupiter Pluvius.
Charles NJ. Hatfield, rain persuader, has
returned from the Big Tejunga country
his face wreathed in smiles
In spite of the soaking Los Angeles and
its neighborhood received in the recent
storm, Hatfield wears his laurels modestly.
He is willing to share the honors with the
preachers, the weather guessers and even
with Providence. All the rainmaker de-
mands is credit for a heavier downpour
than would have occurred had he not been
pumping noxious fumes into the heavens.
Except for him and his process, he says,
Los Angeles would have had to be salts
fed with a drizzle
Il don't claim full credit for the down.
pour" he said, "but 1 do say that 1 was
responsible for holding the storm in south
ern California as long as it stayed.
when 1 started out conditions were ex-
tremely unfavorable for me- To be sure
there were few clouds in the sky, but
they were scattered, and not of the kind
that produce precipitation. l reached
the Big Tejunga country one evening and
set up my apparatus on a point 1,5O0 feet
above sea level.
1.-The next morning 1 began operations
At o'clock in the evening conditions
seemed very much against me- 1t was very
clear. with not even cirrhus cloud in
the sky.
Small cirrhus clouds formed the follow
ing morning and became heavier as the
day advanced. That night the rain began,
and a heavy downpour set in, which con-
tinued until o'clock in the morning My
rain gauges registered LIS inches Friday
morning. That morning the rain began
again and continued in showers until night
Thirty-six hundredths of an inch was re-
corded in my rain gauge, making a total of
Lea inches for the storm, the heaviest down.
pour | believe, in the State.
My process is to work upon the humidity
of the atmosphere. L have tried it eigh-
teen times and have had only one failure
at Inglewood. Dec. 15 last. On that oc-
casion / produced so heavy a fog that il
dripped from the trees i'm a steady stream
and precipitated .O1 of an inch of water in
my rain gauge.
II try my process only when the condi-
| tons are most unfavorable, that doubters
cannot say ii is guesswork or just hap
| pened So.
MY apparatus consists of tower thir-
| ty-five feet high, on top of which are two
banks. One about four or five inches deem
| is kept filled with water. Evaporation is
produced by means of heat. Beside this
| tank is another, containing my chemicals
| The fumes from the chemicals, ascending
with the Vapor from the water act uno6
| the humidity of the air. Cirrhus clouds
| always the forerunner of rain, are formed.
| Gradually these grow larger and shut off
| the rays of the sun. This permits the
formation of nimbus or cumulus. which in
| reality is rain.
"Of course, / don't claim the credit for
| the storm off the Oregon coast nor all the
| credit for the storm which visited Los
| Angeles But do contend that but for my
| process the fall around Los Angeles would
| have been much lighter. Indeed, the storm
might have turned eastward and not have
visited this section had my process not
| been working.
II operated at San Diego i'm July. 1902
| and on the fourth day produced the heav-
| lest rain ever known during that month in
that section in thirty-seven years. L OBJ
| tanned 81 of an inch.
| Again and again I have tried my
| process and always with results Under
| ordinary conditions / can produce rain over
| an area of 100 square miles"
! Hatfield has collected his subsidy of 81
/ from the Spring-street merchants and has
| returned to selling sewing machines unit
| called upon TO break another dry spell