Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-05-08
WAR AND RA|NF ALL
SCIENTIFIC STUDY
MYSTERY cLINGs TO MUCH DIS.
cUssED SUBJECT
Nature Simply Becomes Dramatic
When Volcano Blows Its Head
OF, Says Writer.

vi, says writer
The value Of the weather as topic
of conversation, of course. lies in it's
delightful uncertainty. Everybody has
his little scraps Of observation and
opinion about it; and no one. as yet.
can claim sufficient positive knowl-
edge about it to crush out the possibi-
lities of conjecture. Weather is sub
ject that has "baffed' the scientists
and anything that has "baffied" scien-
fists is likely to be pleasant morsel
for discussion by ordinary mortals.
Nevertheless, the baffled scientists
have worked a good deal on the sub
ject of the weather and one of them,
Alexander Meade, writes on that pop
ular topic, HAS the War Affected the
Weather.
In coming to the conclusion that
there is nothing to show that it has,
he incidentally says number Of in
teresting things that fill one with awe
some respect for scientific thoroness
without dispelling the pleasing vague
ness of the subject. Consider the
"little drops of water" for instance,
which not only make the mighty
ocean, but also the basic element of a
mighty volume of conversation.
Scientists certainly do go into min
ute detail in discussing a subject like
this. Water drops, for instance. are
partly made up of hydrogen, a gram
of which, this writer says, contains
six million million million million
atoms" And electrons are much
smaller than the atoms. Just as
things arc getting too small, really. to
grasp, it is comforting to learn that
nuclei or centers of condensation in
a drop Of water are larger than cleo
irons. Tie nuclei are certain foreign
bodies" and Mr.. McAdie says that if
ever man succeeds in making rain
artific.ally it will be by increasing the
numb or of nuclei.
He quotes John Aitken of Edin-
bural, the man who has most studied
the behavior of nuclei, as saying that
the number of nuclei in puff of
smoke from lighted cigarette is
A ,OO0, 900, 100000 to the cubic cent?
meter. These figures tinge cigarette
smoking with unwonted majesty. No
doubt there are plenty of cigarette
smokers who would be ready to volun-
teer to serve the public as rainmakers.
However, when the writer suggests on
how much larger scale factory Chin
ney furnishes material toward the
building of raindrops, the cigarette
figures lose some of their majesty.
Sometimes nature conducts rain
making experiment in a very dramatic
fashion," he also says, "as when vol
cano blows its head off," But jump.
ing to the conclusion that mems big
guns can do the same thing is dis
couraged by the writer. The efforts
of volcano and gun differ greatly.
"For example" he says, during one
of the recent eruptions of Asama
Yama. pressure disturbances were re-
corded on all the paragraphs in
Japan; but the daily noon gun fired
close to the observatory in Toxic
never affects the instruments"
II would be rash to say that rain
making on commercial scale is be-
You'd human control, but certainly
there is still lacking conclusive evil
dence that any mans efforts have pro-
duced it, the writer says. To the
poser, IF the war is not the cause of
the abnormal weather, what is it?"
the weather man confesses. 1--WE do
not know" He also admits that after
large experience in forecasting for the
Government it has sometimes seemed
to him that it was the valor of the
forecaster rather than the value of the
forecast which deserved commenda-
tion.'
The time is coming, he predicts,
when information will be extended to
all atmospheric levels available, and
not limited to one-that near the
ground-as at present. The newer
meteorology, he says, will undoubted-
ly throw light on cloudiness and rain
formation. Possibly, and the outcome
may have sordid practical value, but
what Is then to become of the charm
of vagueness in the weather as an
ever-ready topic of conversation?