The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1914-12-15
BATTLES AND nAI.I
Absolutely No Physical Relation
Exists Between Them.
AN ANCIENT MYTH RlDDLED.

No Amount of Gun or Cannon Fire
Would Have Any Appreciable Effect
Upon Either the Humidity or the
Temperature of the Atmosphere.
1T is one Of the extraordinary things
of warfare. says a recent writer III
PearsonS Weekly QondonJ, that
big battle invariably produces rain.
Once in the early stone age some
body remarked to somebody else that
rain frequently occurred after battles
The author of this casual statement
was probably not i psychologist. else
his conscience would have Smitten him
for having set atiOat in the world the
germ of a particularly fatuous fallacy
The evolution of the idea was probably
complete long before the age of bronze,
Big battles are often followed by rain.
Big battles often produce rain. Big
battles invariably produce rain. Even
the modern penny-aliner cannot i'm
prove en- the statement. The myth l.
fxed-crystallized- probably i'm
perishable.
Had we enjoyed the privilege of per
sonai acquaintance with the Neander-
thai gentleman just mentioned we
should have courteously entreated him
TO start another ball rolling down the
ages, to wit, "A big sneeze is often
followed py rain" The infinitesimaI
increase in the humidity of the air
occasioned by sneeze is simple and
obvious fact, whereas the ininitesimal
amount of water vapor produced by
the explosion Of a few tons of am
munition can be hunted down only by
an excursion into the fields Of chem
istry.
Since. however. we must put up with
the myth in it's present form. let us
see how it happens that rain has so
often followed battles as to suggest to
uncritical people that there was phys
ical relation between the one and the
other.
First of all, no such relation exists.
Rain is the result of the active con
densation in the atmosphere, and this
Is purely question Of humidity and
temperature. If the humidity be sutti-
GENTLY increased. or the temperature
sufficiently lowered, condensation is in
evitable-provided certain nuclei OF
condensation tdust particles or mole
cules of Microscopic gasesl be present.
and outside of the laboratory they al
ways are present
Now, it Is conceivable that warring
army might produce local rainstorm
BY setting fire to a great city. II the
air be rather moist. large conhagra-
tton invariably builds up great cumulus
clouds above it. The heated air rises
and cools by expansion. just as its does
from the sun heated earth on sum
mer day, and condensation results. Un'
der favorable conditions a very big
are might cause smart shower, or
even a thunderstorm. though usually
the process goes no further than to
form clouds.
a battle, however, cannot be sup
posed to have any appreciable effect
upon either the temperature or the
humidity of the air. Two explanations
of the alleged production Of rain by
battles have been offered, one non
sensical, and the other pseudo-scien-
tiic. The nonsensical explanation Is
the popular one-viz, that the con-
densation of moisture is promoted by
the conclusion due to cannonading, or
that the drops already condensed and
constituting the clouds are jostled to-
gether by the same process, with the
result that they coaleSce and fall as
rain. AS was once pointed out by
Professor Newcomb, the effect of
violent explosion upon body of moist
air a quarter of mile away is exactly
the same as that Of the clapping of
ones hands upon the moist air of the
room in which the experiment is per-
forned-i. e., absolutely nil. Or. again.
if we stand in the steam escaping
from a kettle and clap our hands we
shall not produce a shower, though we
jostle the water drops just as the e1-
plosion does at distance Of a quarter
Of mile.
TIE pseudo scientific explanation is
that the gases and smoke produced by
explosions increase condensation by in
creasing the number Of nuclei in the
atmosphere The nucleation of the at
mosphere, as affected by ordinary dust
mess, by Microscopic gases, by radio
active discharges, by ultra violet light
and what not. is still an obscure sub
ject. An outstanding result OF recent
Investigations. however. appears to be
this: The lower atmosphere normally
contains more than the minimum num-
Der Of nuclei necessary for the process
OF condensation. and this process can
not be made more active by mere in
crease in the number. Thus various
and abundant nuclei. in the form OF
gases and smoke. are given of to the
atmosphere by great manufacturing