Patent Watch Weather Control

This article presents an overview of few patents on the fringe of environmental engineering involving weather control. In the Patent number 462,795 issued in 1891, liquefied carbonic acid gas is placed in a shell, shot into the atmosphere, and exploded. The gas evaporates and in so doing allegedly cools down the atmosphere producing moisture in a cloud and ultimately rain. The wildest rainmaking patent is number 1,103,490, dated July 14, 1914. The inventor, J.M. Cordray, describes numerous balloons released into the atmosphere and then a lot of explosions. Some balloons include bags of water; others include finely crushed bone and concentrated sulphuric acid; still other balloons include canisters of giant powder, and chloride [sic] of potash; and yet still another set of balloons includes oil burners and a tank of water to produce steam. The claimed method of producing rain involves violently disturbing the air above the earth, then heating the air and supplying moisture and nitrogen into the air.