Page 132 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

4.1 Fog dispersal apparatus: sand being discharged through nozzles that are carrying
a potential of 10,000 volts. (national archives photo b8241)

trical charge in the cloud to change from a static to a kinetic state that will rap-
idly spread or flash over the whole clouded area from the spraying of only a few
pounds of dust over a small part of a highly charged storm movement and force
precipitation when the wet bulb conditions are favorable over the dry section”
(3). By changing the polarity of his generator, he said, he could reverse the process
and produce “a large hole, in a fraction of a minute . . . through the entire cloud
from top to bottom” (3). of course this is gobbley-gook, akin to the unsupported
technical claims invoked by the charlatan rain fakers. When asked why he was
intercepting only fair-weather clouds, Warren cited the absence of suitable fog in
Dayton and the danger of flying through rain clouds, since all were “highly elec-
trified and it was not deemed safe to deal with them with high voltage until mea-
sures were taken to guard against possible accidents to the pilots and planes” (3).
Aviation pioneer orville Wright, who worked at McCook Field, witnessed
one of the test flights through his office window and sent a telegram to the New
York Times. He testified that he saw aviators cut to pieces three cumulus clouds in
ten minutes, but saw no rain fall: “Having little knowledge of meteorology and

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