RAIN MAKING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7727, 10 June 1903, Page 3

RAIN MAKING.

DR M'CARTHY'S CONTRIVANCE. United Press Association — By Electrio Telegra.p'h — Copyright. (Received June 10, 9.34 a.m.) MELBOURNE, June 10. A 'suggestion having been made to Dr M'Carthy that the Broken Hill people might refuse to pay for the. rain after he made it, on the ground that Providence sent it and not he, h« replied that he had no possible doubt about it. He would send such a straight up-and-down tropical rain as they had never had before. (The Broken Hill Chamber of Commerce is prepared'to find £2000 of the £5000 required by Dr M'Carthy's rain-making syndicate to produce three inches ' of rain in three days', and has asked the- New South Wales Government to subsidise the balance, 'l^e Premier is sceptical, and declined. Dr M'Carthy, whose terms are "no rain, no pay," claims ta produce rain by sending up from three centres a. 'jjnmn of gas, made by certain chemicals. The gas, if sent \ip for a maximum of -Cfcirtytwo hours, will produce rain over a range of ninety miles at any altitude, with any sky, and with the wind from any quarter. It is not necessary to wait' until the wind is from the usually rainy quarter. In one experiment he made, the barometric conditions were quite unfavourable, yet he declares he produced rain. The gas causes in the different strata of the atmosphere a vacuum. The vacuum Ms the centre of a heat-storniy and 1 Is filled by dense clouds, that contain rain. These clouds come down with the gravity of the earth, when rain descends. The rain, is different from the ordinary rain found in the districts -in which the experiments have been made. It is tropical rain, coming from, very lofty regions, being slight at first, and^ then later descending in heavy showers and bucketfuls. The manager of one station on which experiments had been made, resulting in a heavy fall, is stated to have assessed the improvement to his land at £500.)