Page 144 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

dissipation, has been a substantial increase in knowledge of the physical prop-
erties of fog and of the means for conveniently determining these properties, as
well as a more thorough quantitative knowledge of the transmission of electro-
magnetic waves through fog, whether they be radio, light, or long infrared.” 37
Still, the list of institutions acknowledged for their support in the MIT report
reads like a who’s who of the military–industrial complex in 1934: Colonel
Green for the use of his estate; the American Philosophical Society for a research
grant; and the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the U.S. Army Air Corps, and
the Bureau of Air Commerce of the Department of Commerce for their support.
Huge amounts of chemicals were provided free of charge by the Michigan and
Columbia alkali companies and the Dow Chemical Company. Edison Electric
of Boston lent the experimenters a large power transformer. This combination of
government, commercial, and private philanthropic support was part of a persis-
tent pattern of patronage (6–7).
It is undoubtedly true that a 30-foot-high barrier made of metal pipes and
stretched across a runway is dangerous to airplanes landing and taking off, espe-
cially in conditions of low visibility. Houghton’s chemical mix, although promis-
ing, was also impractical, being dangerous and corrosive. More substantial was
his basic research on the formation and evaporation of small droplets, on the
optical properties of fog, and on the search for possible hygroscopic chemicals
to disperse it. Houghton’s greatest contribution, however, involved the idea that
cloud physics research, as distinct from but related to operational weather modi-
fication, had a place in the modern university.

fido: a brute-force method of fog dispersal

Foggy weather kept aviators grounded in World War I, but by 1921 British
meteorologist Sir Napier Shaw discussed the possibility of clearing fog at an
airfield by heating it, concluding, “I would not like to say it is impossible with
unlimited funds and coal.” He noted, however, that “air in the open is very
slippery stuff and it has all sorts of ways of evading control that are very disap-
38
pointing.” Professor Frederick A. Lindemann (later Lord Cherwell) agreed
with Shaw and chose to emphasize blind landing techniques. other possibili-
ties, although none of them were proved, included sprays of electrified water,
air, or sand (Warren), chemical treatments (Houghton), vigorous fanning, and
coating rivers with oil. Yet the brute-force technology of heating the runway
was the only one certain to work—although it appeared at the time to be pro-
hibitively expensive.

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