Rain Making Machine to Aid Erosion Problems

Grey River Argus, 28 June 1947, Page 3

Rain Making Machine to Aid Erosion Problems

WELLINGTON, June 26.

An experiment believed to be unique in the British Empire is being under taken in New Zealand by the research section of the Rivers Control and Soil Conservation Council. The experiment aims at the production of artificial rain, and its object is a low-cost method of evaluating the country’s soil and plant cover characteristics.

Following the lines of a United States model, the council has devised a rainfall applicator which it is hoped will be ready for preliminary tests in a few weeks. The applicator, which could be used over a plot measuring about 4ft by 3ft 6in. was built by the Public Works Department. It consists of a tank with holes in the bottom through which water drips in the first stage of applied rainfall, an overflow weir to control the depth of water in the tank, an interchangeable screen under the tank to intercept the water and cause drops of the desired size to form on a plane parallel to the soil surface, a motor which keeps the screen in motion so that the drops will be well scattered over the soil surface, a motor which keeps the screen in motion so that the drops will be well scattered over the soil surface, and a bottom curtain that can be drawn avross the plot to start or stop the rainfall. The idea of applying a rainfall machine to help solve New Zealand’s soil erosion problems was conceived several years ago by Mr D. A. Campbell, who is now the senior conservator .of the council. ' He was responsible for the construction of the applicator, but for some time the experiment has been in the hands of one of the council’s junior officers, Mr C. R. Stanton. Mr Stanton has made a number of adjustments to the applicator during the last nine months, and is now working in cooperation with a number of scientists in the United States.

The main difficulty facing him in his experiments is attaining an even distribution of water, while another problem ha? been reducing the intensity of fall below five inches an. hour. “We have arrived at the conclusion that such an intensity can be used only to . produce relative figures of credibility,” said Mr Stanton. 1