THE PREVENTION OF HAILSTORMS BY THE USE OF 



CANNON'- 



In 1896 the Honorable Albert Stiger, mayor of Windisch Feistritz, 

 in Styria, revived an old custom of the ])receding century, usually' 

 termed " weather firing." Formerly the firing was from ordinary 

 mortars, but Mr Stiger introduced several modifications. He found 

 that by the use of a funnel attached to the mortar the efficiency of 

 the shot could be greatly increased. His machine was constructed 

 on the following lines : A heavy block of oak or tough wood was hol- 

 lowed out so that it could be fastened securely to the mortar b}' iron 

 clamps, and an iron funnel was then screwed to the block of wood. 

 The funnel is made of sheet iron 2 millimeters thick and has a 

 diameter at the upi)er opening of 70 centimeters, while at the lower 

 opening its width is only 20 millimeters. In 1897 as man}' as 36 of 

 these firing stations were established. 



At first Mr Stiger's experiments were sneered at and made the sport 

 both of scientists and of the unscientific. But nevertheless the severitj' 

 of the hail, which ever}' year since the seventies had wrought great 

 damage in Styria, ceased in Windisch Feistritz, while in the neighbor- 

 ing districts it became even more destructive. Gradually the belief 

 in the efficacy of '' weather shooting " as a i)rotection from hail spread 

 to the wine-growing districts in the vicinity of Styria. Here also the 

 ex])eriments proved a great success, and were then taken u]) l)y Lom- 

 bardy, Piedmont, and the other provinces to the south. Then the 

 Italian deputy, Dr E. Ottaviri, visited Windisch Feistritz and became 

 also a convert to Stiger's system of weather shooting. He returned 

 to Italy, and under his leadership similar apparatus, called Stiger 

 cannon, were rapidly manufactured and set up, especially in Tus- 

 cany and Emilia; also an astonishing number of shooting associa- 

 tions sprang up, each with its individual station. Jn the svuumer 

 of 1899, the first in which the cannon was used in Italy, no less than 

 2,000 stations were equipped on the Stiger pattern, and all were verv 

 active during the season. 'I'he Italians in fact became so enthusiastic 

 that a congress was summoned and met Xovemher (>-8, 1S1)9, in 



*Ati aliHtruot of un lu-ticic from tlir W'iinrr AhimlpoHt, liy IM .1. M. I'cinic-r, iliri'iinr i.r the 

 ltn|ii-|-iul ItiMtitiite of .Meteorology ami .MuKnt-tiHiii of N'ieiiiia. 



2aii 



