Page 134 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

4.2 “Rain to order”: lampoon of possible applications of rainmaking using electrified
sand. (Cartoon by Al Frueh, in New York World, February 15, 1923; Bancroft
Papers)

The May 1923 issue of Popular Science Monthly described the Warren–
Bancroft demonstrations and hyped the story: “Think of it! Rain when you want
it. Sunshine when you want it. Los Angeles weather in Pittsburgh and April
showers for the arid deserts of the West. Man in control of the heavens—to turn
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them on or shut them off as he wishes.” In an illustration, an electrified plane
turns smog over a city into artificial clouds, while a second plane clears the air by
generating artificial rain (figure 4.4).
Warren claimed that a number of practical applications were just over the
horizon: clearing the smoke from cities, removing London fogs, intervening in
the course of naval battles, bringing rain to the farmers. As he explained it, the
electricity generated by falling sand and rain would cause more rain to generate
in the adjacent clouds and set off the entire heavens, much in the manner of a
long fuse, thus causing widespread rains. Bancroft, who had been supportive all

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