WEATHER MAKING, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 265 



then of $7,000, for carryiugon the experimeuts, some of which he had 

 already had made at his own expense. The ajjpropriation assigned the 

 condnct of the experiments to the Department of Agriculture, and the 

 Secretary selected E. G. Dyrenforth for the work. The experiments 

 were carried on in the vicinity of Washington and in Texas. A report 

 from Mr. Dj^renforth was i^nblished by Congress in 1892. At the next 

 session of Congress another ajtpropriation of $10,000 was made for this 

 purpose, of which the sum of $1,913.59 was expended, as before, under 

 Dyrenforth's direction, the remainder having been covered back into 

 the Treasury. 



Mr. Dyrenforth's methods were highly iugeuious. He used a variety 

 of explosives, on the ground and in the air, by great single explosions 

 and by volleys. He introduced many novelties, among them that of 

 exploding the gas in the balloon itself when high in the air. His con- 

 clusions, as stated by himself in his first report, were (p. 59): 



"First. That when a moist cloud is present, which, if undisturbed, 

 would pass away without precipitating its moisture, the Jarring of the 

 cloud by concussions will cause the particles of moisture in suspension to 

 agglomerate and fall in greater or less (|uantity, according to the degree 

 of moistness of the air in and beneath the cloud. 



" Second. That by taking advantage of those periods which frequently 

 occu^r in droughts, and in most if not in all sections of the United States 

 where precipitation is insuflUcient for vegetation, and during which 

 atmospheric conditions fiivor rainfall, without there being actual rain, 

 precipitation may be caused by concussion. 



"Third. That under the most unfavorable conditions for precipita- 

 tion, conditions which need never be taken in operations to ])roduce 

 rain, storm conditions may be generated and rain be induced, there 

 being, however, a wasteful expenditure of both time and material in 

 overcoming unfavorable conditions." 



His second report has not been published, but 1 infer that his second 

 series of observations were believed by him to confirm the results of the 

 first. 



Mr. Dyrenforth generally omitted one check which he might well 

 have employed, and which I i^ersonally urged him to employ. Experi- 

 ments of this sort, made in the free air, with the accompanying condi- 

 tions not under control, should be accompanied with every i)0ssible 

 check; and one self-evident and very necessary one is the observation 

 of a physicist familiar with the meteorologic side of physics. Such an 

 expert (Mr. G. E. Curtis) accompanied the party in its first experiments. 

 His report (except the bare meteorologic record made during the exper- 

 iments) does not accompany Dyrenforth's document. It was i)re- 

 sented, however, to the Philosophical Society of Washington, and was 

 printed elsewhere. Mr. Curtis says, substantially, that an explosion in 

 a cloud brings down a few scattering drops of rain, and this may 

 happen even with an explosion on the ground, if heavy. Otherwise he 

 says there was no rain making. It is but fair to say that with Mr. 

 Dyrenforth's report are given the reports of his assistants, Mr. John 



