Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1912-07-28

While half uf the corn ln TUBA
county is sufficiently maturod to M
sure good yield, in spite Of the
threatened drouth there stll re-
mains few crops that VIII be- bene-
nttrd materially hy "a duWnpuur The
suggestion OF Barney llorrlgan, Tul-
sa's expert uu explosive ihat a sum
OF money less than 5000, would be
sufficient to produce substantial
doWnpour of rain, by artificial pro-
cesses, has aroused much discussion,
both IN Tulsa and elsewhere around
the country, Local MERCHANTS and
surrounding farmers are talking
strongly of raising "a small FUND 10
experiment with the shooting Of ~
ploslNrs Ia Tulsa county Tor the pur.
pose Of making rain, llorrigan's plan,
as published In the World, has elected
among other communications ana
comments, the following letter that
appeared the pact week Ia the wien
ina Beacon,
Editor the Beacon-RelaliNe 10 the
proposed rain making experiments at
Tulsa, Okla, whore IL rs intended 10
lombard the sky with quantities Of
dynamite, Prof Wills l., Moore, chief
of the weather bureau, issued the fol-
lowing statement;
Numerous reports have come 10
the weather bureau indicating that An
epidemic Of Matchmaking has hrnk-
en- ont in various parts of the country,
originating In some experiments of
! this character made boy Mr. L. W
Post, near Post City, Tex last SUM
mer. The method adopted was the
| familiar one Of setting of powerful
explosives until, as ls alleged, the jar
/ ring Of the atmosphere leads to the
condensation and precipitation Of
moisture. A description OF his eX-
porimcnts published boy Mr. Post In a
| magazine article has been copied
widely I'm the daily papers, and also
/ circulated In pamphlet form.
"Mr Post claimed that copiOus
showers followed three OF the four tx
perimeuts made by him last summer.
/ lie, however. Ignores the fact that In
each case when rain occurred II was
genera over much Of the state Of
Texas or at least over several hun
drcd square miles OF territorp sur
rounding the place Of experiments
and, what is more significant, had
/ been predicted by the weather bureau
/ on the basis ~ the general mete0ro-
| logical conditions Of the country Mr..
| Posts account OF his results Is there
fore misleading, ana Is especially un-
| fortunate because coupled with some
very speclous arguments In favor Of
! the general adoption Of his process as
a cheap substitute forirrigation.
"lt hardly seems necessary for the
weather bureau at this late date to
enter into elabopte arguments In
order To convince the public OF the
utter futlity Of this and every other
method 80 far proposed for ARTIFICIAL
! ly producing rain. Almost exactly
| the same experiments az those Of Mr..
| Post were carried out some twenty
years ago in nearly the same part Of
the country by the late J. c. Dyren-
forth, and although the results OBJ
talnod were regarded as encouraging
! by the eXperimenters themselves,
they were pronounced Il complete IL
asco by the intelligent public as well
as by scientific men. Moreover, en-
tirely regardless Of whether rain does
or does not follow n particular eX-
pertinent Of this kind, the supposition
that there IL relation of cause and
effect between/the explosions and the
rain Is one that can not be entertained
for moment by anyone familler with
the physical processes involved.
That rain followed many Of the