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Some of you might like to model one of these.
“RAINMAKING” ON THE CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RY.
Engineering News — February, 1895
Ever since the famous expedition, in the fall of 1891, of Gen. “Cloud-Compelling” Dyrenforth and his party of assistants to bombard the skies which overhang the and plains of Texas, there has been a good deal of popular interest in the subject of rainmaking. The “bomb” method, by which the atmosphere is “whacked” with explosions until it sheds drops of moisture like an erring school boy has yielded its place in popular favor to a more mysterious process, by which certain unknown gases are poured forth from a secret apparatus. If the claims of the originators of this process are to be believed, these gases possess a potency only to be compared with that of the mysterious “vapors” in the “Arabian Nights,” which, issuing from a tiny casket or a nut were transformed into a palace, a fortress, an evil genie, or other object whose volume bore no relation to the size of the original containing vessel.
During the past two or three years various scattered newspaper articles have given information concerning the working of this process at various points; and while we are accustomed to place small reliance on newspaper reports concerning any technical matter, our curiosity was aroused by the statement that the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. Co. had interested itself in the matter, and we, therefore, applied to officials of that company for a verification or contradiction of the reports. We are indebted to their courtesy for the following information, which we present substantially as received, commenting upon it in our editorial columns.
The system of “rainmaking” used