54 M. W. Harrington— Weather making. 
tary operations rain is usually falling somewhere in eastern 
United States; that in fact it is not clear but that the rain is a 
pure coincidence. The argument is not conclusive. Indeed, it 
is only fair to say that under the conditions involved it could 
not be made conclusive. Mr Powers, however, did not despond, 
but used his utmost endeavors to bring the matter toa test. For 
this purpose he persuaded Senator Farwell, in 1874, to present 
a petition to Congress asking that the theory be tried. This, 
with a previous petition to which he refers, seems to have been 
without response on the part of Congress. 
Later, and apparently independently, the matter was taken 
up by General Daniel Ruggles, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who 
obtained a patent in 1880 (number 230,067) on making rain by 
explosions in the clouds. His claim runs: 
The nature of my invention consists in sending one or more balloons 
into the cloud-realms, said balloon or balloons carrying torpedoes and 
cartridges charged with explosives, and there to explode or detonate them 
by magneto-electric or electric force through metallic wire, textile cordage, 
or by the fuse, or by mechanical force, in order to precipitate rainfall by 
concussion or vibration of the atmosphere. 
General Ruggles succeeded in bringing the matter before Con- 
egress, but did not succeed in getting an appropriation. His’ 
plan was much discussed in the newspapers at the time, but 
. e 
does not seem to have reached the experimental stage. 
Senator Farwell, however, continued his interest in the matter, 
and in 1890 finally succeeded in obtaining an appropriation, first 
of $2,000, then of $7,000, for carrying on the experiments, some 
of which he had already had made at his own expense. The 
appropriation assigned the conduct of the experiments to the 
Department of Agriculture, and the Secretary selected R. G. 
Dyrenforth for the work. The experiments were carried on in 
the vicinity of Washington and in Texas... A report from Mr 
Dyrenforth was published by Congress in 1892. At the next 
session of Congress another appropriation of $10,000 was made 
for this purpose, of which the sum of $4,913.59 was expended, 
as before, under Dyrenforth’s direction, the remainder having 
been covered back into the Treasury. 
Mr Dyrenforth’s methods were highly ingenious. He used 
a variety of explosives, on the ground and in the air, by great 
single explosions and by volleys. He introduced many novel- 
