RAIN MAKING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16317, 18 April 1927, Page 11

RAIN MAKING

USE OF AEROPLANE TAPPING THE CLOUDS LONDON, Foil. 24. L: ■ ii-nliflt* achievement approaching ill, 11 :.i .11 whore it will lie able to “make rain” at will or distribute its fall more evenly over wider areas in i’id r 10-prevent Hoods' The answer to lie riddle, if ultimately found, .should certainly benefit Australia, and r, 1.010 particularly Queensland. Seiynlifiv minds in many countries are closely studying the problem, but the most successful experiment so far is that at Dayton, Ohio, where, from an aeroplane dying above a eloud, eleeI iliv charged sand was thrown on to die eloud, thus forcing a fall of vain. Professor A. Al. Low, the voting British scientist, is confident ' i>, science will “eventually obtain partial control over local weather.” He does not pretend that rain will be toi cid to fall from cloudless skies, |,ut he believes that “we may certainly hope to lap rain clouds when ruin is needed.” Furthermore, he thinks “we may Ib’d it. possible to move rain-bearing chads from one district to another, jl’ie .spreading the lninfnll instead of lav Ufi ilohds "in one part and parched ground in anothor.” Weather, lie loll.', us. is nut some vast atmospherical mass through which the earth travels, but a cloak which envelops the earth and travels with it. “We avo not seeking to remodel the universe, but merely to obtain some conf col over a purely local condition. We want to spread'the patches of rain evenly over the entire surface of the earth.” The professor is confident that, scientific el'fnrr will eventually triumph over the difficulty. Unfortunately, he seems to suffer from the defect ‘inherent in nearly all professors—that of theorising without getting down to practical remedies.