The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-01-13

This Year.
Devices to make rain, to stop rain.
10 ward off frost, to regulate heat and
to make the wind blow at the will of
tle farmer have been offered to The
farmer AT fancy prices by experiment
ers in various PARTS of the country So
often that special warnings have been
issued by the Department of AgricuI
ture against some of them.
The contract of "Rainmnker'' Hat
field to deliver rain at Medicine Hat
Alberta. for the price of $4,000 an inch
and the claims that M fulfilled the,
contract and made II huge profit have
caused other promoters to inter the
climate-controlling industry. Because
If was generally a wet year. there has
been reported only a very small de
mand for cloud-compelling Inventions
Frost-flghting devices were discussed
as follows in a statement by e. r
Marvin of the United States weather
bureau:
"One device. consisting of an air
plane propeller mounted horizontally
on a 25-foot tower. was given n thor
ough test In an orchard in southern
California and was found to be ahsn-
lutely worthless. as far as raising the
temperature was concerned.
"A funnel-shaped machine which
drives heated air over the tops of
trees was also tested during the same
season and found to he Of even less
practical value. if such a thing were
possible Quite a long experience has
demonstrated the economic practi-
eability of adding heat to the air
through the use of 30 to 100 small
fires to the acre"
Cannon to Break Up Hail.
Prof. D.. w. Herring of New York
university, who hos made a study of
the history of r aking devices and
similar invention has found only one
weather-controlling device which ac-
tually works. and this is a cannon
which breaks up threatening hail
storms. This is described as follows
in IN article by Doctor Herring in the
Scientific Monthly:
"Afrer various haphazard expert
enees of vit%iculturists, one of them. an
Austrian. Albert Stiger. invented a
form of cannon in 1896 which could
readily and effectively be used for the
purpose of repelling and beaking up
such storms.
"This cannon somewhat resembles
the old bell-mouthed blunderhuss in
form. with a chamber at the breach
for a cartridge containing only pow
der and a funnel-shaped tube, like the
cone of a megaphone. Housed in lit
tie shacks on the hillsides. these are
ready for use at short notice. and
since they are distributed among the
many adjoining vineyards. a whole
battery of them can be brought into
action promptly.
"When the storm is seer to be gath
ering, the are brought out
and directed against the threatening
cloud. Signals are sent from vine
yard to vineyard, and upon the first
appearance of the destructive hail
stone the counter bombardment begins.
From the mouth of the cannon is
sues a mass of heated gas, smoke and
smoke rings, propelled violently
against the lowering cloud. The
smoke rings are like those discharged
from the smokestack by the puffs of
a locomotive. but with far greater
energy Of propulsion.
Like a Gas Attack in War.
I'm a sense, this was anticipating
the war, for 1t was a veritable gas at
tack in the realm of the aeronaut.
The theory of the action is not very
definite or we'll assured. Whether the
rings of smoke disrupt the clouds or
whether sufficient local heating of
the air causes warm air to rise and
intercept the hail, converting 1t into
rain or preventing the c~ongealing of
water vapor into hail, is uncertain !;
but there seems to be sufficient evil
dence of the efficacy of the plan in
dispensing the clouds and checking the
storm of hail. The annon literally
shoot it away"
Rain production will probably be &C
complished in time. according to Doc
tor Herring. who said:
weather control by artificial
means, however, is not regarded as un-
scientific, and meteorologists are no
hopeless of accomplishing it. AT the
time of the Dryenforth experiments.
the physicist, Elmer Gates. was