Page 161 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

5.1 Vincent Schaefer reenacting his discovery on July 12, 1946, that sparked fresh
weather-control experiments, as Irving Langmuir (left) and Bernard Vonnegut watch.
Colleagues have said that he did this on innumerable occasions for anyone who would
watch. (schaefer papers)

into a cloud from an airplane, hundreds of thousands of pounds of snow could
23
be generated. Like the electrified sand researchers of the 1920s, Schaefer sup-
posed that “precipitation” not reaching the ground would serve to dry out the
clouds and dissipate them. “Thus,” he speculated, “it would seem possible with
the right arrangements—barrage or captive balloons, rockets, etc., etc., to clear
areas around airports, on flight paths, or possibly to precipitate snow in moun-
tainous regions where it could be used for water storage and sport and prevent it
24
from being deposited in cities!” Langmuir too was engaged in calculations of
his own about the vast economic and practical consequences of seeding natural
clouds with dry ice.

144 | PatHoloGiCal SCienCe