Page 82 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

the Division of Forestry, Bernhard E. Fernow, thought that the entire enterprise
was under-conceptualized, with no reasonable expectation that the experiments
would be effective. Nevertheless, Rusk chose Dyrenforth as the lead investigator
and special agent of the government.
Dyrenforth was born in Chicago and received his education in Germany, at
Prussian military academies, at the Polytechnic School in Karlsruhe, and at the
University of Heidelberg, where he was awarded a doctorate in mechanical engi-
neering in 1869. He served as a war correspondent during the Austro-Prussian
War of 1861 and, during the Civil War, attained the rank of major in the Union
Army, but later he claimed he was a “general.” After studying law at Colombian
College in Washington, D.C., he worked as an attorney for the Patent office and
in private practice. It was said that Dyrenforth was boastful of his accomplish-
ments, even alleged ones, and was extremely demanding of both his family and
his subordinates. 33
Dyrenforth decided that the best rainmaking policy would be to attack the
atmosphere on multiple fronts with balloons, kites, dynamite, mortars, smoke
bombs, and even fireworks. His primary idea was to stimulate condensation
of moisture or deflection and mixing of opposing moist and cold air currents
by concussion, using whatever explosive devices were available to him. In this,
he was firmly following trails blazed by Powers and Ruggles. Dyrenforth theo-
rized that as secondary effects, the explosions would generate shock, pressure,
and heat, creating a powerful upward current in the form of an eddy or a whirl-
pool and inward- and upward-rushing streams of air in line with Espy’s convec-
tive theory. The explosions should also generate electrical charges that would
polarize the Earth and sky, generate a magnetic field, and possibly enhance
the condensation of moisture—a theory reminiscent of the one articulated by
the American chemist Robert Hare in the 1830s. Following a line of reasoning
attributed to the Scottish physicist and meteorologist John Aitken. Dyrenforth
expected smoke from the gunpowder to provide nuclei for the agglomeration of
suspended particles of moisture.
Another idea was that balloons inflated with one part oxygen and two parts
hydrogen and detonated aloft with an electric spark would supposedly form a
small amount of liquid water in the process, thereby seeding the clouds with
sympathetic nuclei for the aggregation of more water. Critics pointed out that
producing hydrogen and oxygen gases in the field was slow and required bulky
and expensive equipment and supplies. Moreover, since a large exploding bal-
loon could be expected to produce no more than 6 ounces of water, it would
probably be more efficient to fly a pint of water into a cloud on a balloon or kite and
just release it. Dyrenforth was persistent, however, since he favored a secondary

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