Word: langmuir
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Meteorologists have never been able to pin down a regular pattern in the weather, beyond the daily and annual cycles. But in late 1949, Rainmaker Irving Langmuir started releasing silver iodide particles in the skies over New Mexico on the same day each week. His idea was to see if this "weekliness" showed up in weather statistics gathered all over the country. According to a report in last week's Chemical and Engineering News, Langmuir is sure that...
...Irving Langmuir's ants need not have drowned [TIME, Aug. 28] had they realized the potentialities of jet propulsion. As a boy in western Washington, I used to toss large black ants into our quarry swimming hole. After a few preliminary struggles to orient themselves to the nearest shore, they would squirt a jet of formic acid from a convenient rear port and be shot six or eight inches nearer safety. Not being streamlined (and rudderless), these insects would re-aim and repeat the process until they were able to scramble out. Perhaps our Western ants are just smarter...
Your article on Meteorologists Langmuir and Schaefer neglected to mention that their work may result in another benefit ... to this part of the country...
...your Aug. 28 cover story about rainmakers, you said that silver iodide had a tendency to drift with the wind . . . We were wondering if some of Dr. Langmuir's silver iodide might have drifted this far ... as all rain records for Kansas have-been broken this past July and August...
...Langmuir laughs and says: "We'll have to wait and see." With his radars and pocket thermometer, his optimism and his energy, he hopes to make ducks & drakes, some day soon, of New Mexico's perennial drought...