Word: langmuir
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Some conservative meteorologists are still arguing with Langmuir & Co. Their position is that all weather effects are produced by the "synoptic situation," the complicated interaction of air masses of varying temperatures, pressure and wind velocity. All "artificial" rain, they insist, would have fallen anyhow, without man's help. The July 1949 rainfall in New Mexico, for instance, they attribute to a front moving in from the Gulf of Mexico...
...Weather Bureau has shown recent signs of softening its opposition. Its chief, Dr. Francis W. Reichelderfer, gives Langmuir and Schaefer full credit for showing how a cloud can be precipitated. Reichelderfer agrees that certain special clouds, such as the cold clouds which form over mountains, can be seeded profitably. But he thinks Langmuir's claims are too sweeping. "My impression," he says, "is that Langmuir and his associates were successful in speeding up the rain formation process in a few cases, but I feel quite sure that in many cases the rain was due to natural causes...
Farmers' Lament. Some of the rainmakers themselves hesitate to claim positive results from their efforts. Operating in the same touchy area where Irving Langmuir started, New York's Dr. Howell was warned that if he talked too much about dumping rain on the watersheds New York City might be sued by outraged farmers and resort owners in the Catskills. Until a fortnight ago he never mentioned his results. Then he cautiously admitted that his efforts had produced "a certain amount" of rain. In the same breath he suggested that on some occasions they might also have lessened...
What Do Ants Do? As a cautious scientist, Irving Langmuir himself would never go so far as Julius Slutsky's guests. But he is convinced nonetheless that man can make rain if he goes about it at the right time and in the right...
...neither Langmuir nor Workman is overanxious to publish their latest results. Both feel that too much silver iodide is being sprayed around the Southwest these days. It might be just as well to leave matters as they are for a while before western clouds are overseeded or the chemicals drift to the east and cause too much rain...