The Guardian FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. NOTES AND COMMENTS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3250, 31 August 1928, Page 4

The Guardian

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. NOTES AND COMMENTS

Printed at Leeston, Canterbury, New Zealand, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.

WIRELESS AND WEATHER,

"From time to time new explanations are put forward to account for heavy or long-continued rainfall, and one which has enjoyed great favour'is wireless," says an English writer. "People who think a little longer or a

little farther back can see that this, explanation will not do. The wettest summer in the nineteenth century was in 1879, before there were even telephones in any great number, and not many people used electric bolls. i>evertheless, there are others who can find an electrical explanation which is a little more advanced. It is well known that a discharge of electricity will cause droplets of water vapour to cohere. Therefore, say these reasoners, it seems possible that when every wireless station in Europe is radiating electric energy, some of it causes the vapour particles in the clouds to coalesce and fall as rain. "So far from being possible, or even probable, it is impossible. All the electric energy dissipated by all the wireless stations of the world would not be enough to start one shower. In order that rain may fall the clouds from which they have come have to be lifted by rising currents of air. The work could not be done by the biggest power station that supplies electricity to the largest of the world's cities. Millions of horse-powrer are expended in .producing a shower. Lastly, sixteen million tons of water fall every second as rain on the earth. Wireless can neither stop rain nor bring it on; and all the electric power employed in the world would be equally powerless to perform the miracle."