152 Weather and Other Notes. 



in which he said that " he desired to experiment on changfing" 

 the weather, and that meant experimenting- on a ■ Very large 

 scale. If the weather were conditioned by the electrification 

 •of the air, we ought to try artificial electrification. It would, 

 of course, be expensive and difficult ; but something was bound 

 to happen if a trial were made ; it might be a thunderstorm, 

 bringing down rain. There were large tracts of the earth 

 which would be better off for some control of the weather, and 

 he ventured to offer one, possibly absurd, sugg^estion. The 

 negative particles from the sun went to the Poles on account 

 -of the Terrestrial Magnetic field. Supposing that we inter- 

 fered with that field by placing a large Section Copper Con- 

 ductor for heavy currents like a girdle round the earth some- 

 where near the Poles, not to require too much copper. If the 

 earth's interior were mainly iron, and its temperature were 

 below the critical point, the permeability of the earth should 

 be considerable, and a million amperes should do something. 

 If there was no iron, or the temperature above the critical 

 point, the million amperes would not do anything. But we 

 might ascertain the facts by trying to magnetise the earth." 



Had the foregoing suggestion not been made by such a 

 high authority as Sir Oliver, I would have been inclined to use 

 his own word concerning it, " absurd. " Even should it be at 

 all practicable to encircle the earth with a large section copper 

 conductor, and to use a million ampere current on it, I fail 

 to understand how the thunderstorm and rain could be 

 localised, that is, how the rain could be made to come down 

 just where it was required ; also on large dry areas like the 

 Sahara, or any other part where there was a severe drought, 

 the air is perfectly dry, there is no aqueous vapour to form 

 "into clouds, and be brought down as rain by electrification. 



