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National Geographic : 1894 Apr 25
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54 M. W. Harrington- Weather making. tary operations rain is usually falling somewhere in eastern United States; that in fact it is not clear but that the rain is a pure coincidence. The argument is not conclusive. Indeed, it is only fair to say that under the conditions involved it could not be made conclusive. Mr Powers, however, did not despond, but used his utmost endeavors to bring the matter to a test. For this purpose he persuaded Senator Farwell, in 1874, to present a petition to Congress asking that the theory be tried. This, with a previous petition to which he refers, seems to have been without response on the part of Congress. Later, and apparently independently, the matter was taken up by General Daniel Ruggles, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who obtained a patent in 1880 (number 230,067) on making rain by explosions in the clouds. His claim runs: The nature of my invention consists in sending one or more balloons into the cloud-realms, said balloon or balloons carrying torpedoes and cartridges charged with explosives, and there to explode or detonate them by magneto-electric or electric force through metallic wire, textile cordage, or by the fuse, or by mechanical force, in order to precipitate rainfall by concussion or vibration of the atmosphere. General Ruggles succeeded in bringing the matter before Con gress, but did not succeed in getting an appropriation. His plan was much discussed in the newspapers at the. time, but does not seem to have reached the experimental stage. Senator Farwell, however, continued his interest in the matter, and in 1890 finally succeeded in obtaining an appropriation, first of $2,000, then of $7,000, for carrying on the experiments, some of which he had already had made at his own expense. The appropriation assigned the conduct of the experiments to the Department of Agriculture, and the Secretary selected R. G. Dyrenforth for the work. The experiments were carried on in the vicinity of Washington and in Texas. A report from Mr Dyrenforth was published by Congress in 1892. At the next session of Congress another appropriation of $10,000 was made for this purpose, of which the sum of $4,913.59 was expended, as before, under Dyrenforth's direction, the remainder having been covered back into the Treasury. Mr Dyrenforth's methods were highly ingenious. He used a variety of explosives, on the ground and in the air, by great single explosions and by volleys. He introduced many novel-
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