What a great idea Mr. E.S. Haines had back in 1884. When rain is needed, send up a balloon, disperse a chemical into the air and, voila! rain will fall.
Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette 11 Apr 1884 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65586449
These days we call that cloud seeding, not something I know too much about, but a quick bit of research confirmed something I did know. Not one of the chemicals used currently to make rain is called dynamite.
Mr. Haines idea was;
“to construct a captive balloon capable of carrying 800 cubic feet of hydrogen gas, and to it will be suspended a cask containing 50lb of dynamite. When rain is much needed, the balloon will be sent on a trip to the clouds, and by means of electricity the dynamite will be exploded, with the result, as the inventor anticipates, that copious showers of rain will fall on the land beneath. The explosion will open a valve which will cause the gas to leave the balloon, and the aerial visitor will then slowly return to earth.“
Uh huh.
Australia is a very dry place after all, we need as much rain as we can get and if he thinks that his invention could supply it where needed well, good luck to him.
Just don’t try it over my house.
I have to say that the thought of seeing this invention set into motion is utterly wonderful to me. No, I don’t think rain will fall, well, not the kind of crop saving rain Mr. Haines is expecting anyway.
Along with the stunned and slightly singed birds who were unfortunate enough to be passing by I imagine there will be tiny bits of flaming paper wrapper, marked ACME DYNAMITE of course, floating back to earth.
Naturally I expect there will be bits of balloon returning to earth too, the balloon will of course not be ‘slowly returning to earth’ as expected, it was full of highly flammable hydrogen gas. In my mind’s eye there will either be smoking pieces broadcast across the fields it was supposed to be watering.
I wonder what ‘means of electricity’ will be used to detonate this contraption? I think 1884 was a little early for safe remote detonation. All I can see in my mind’s eye is a person standing directly under the balloon with a long, long, wire and a big red button. How fast do you think the wire will return to earth after the boom? I hope the button pusher is wearing a sturdy helmet….
Fortunately I found this appropriate clip on youtube.
Now imagine the 800 cubic feet of hydrogen gas suspended above 50lb (22kg+) of dynamite like a tiny, tiny Hindenberg. 😉
Oops. Of course someone thinks that would be a clever thing to do.
I would love to have seen the maiden flight! I’m not the one holding the button though….. The Man just put a dampener on my big red button thoughts though, suggesting it might have been launched with a slow burning fuse. Logical, but nowhere near as exciting….
Maybe it would be safer to get some Native Americans over to do a Rain Dance?
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
It would probably be more effective!
It is clever as buring hydrogen in oxygen gives you water! So you’re not relying on moisture in the atmosphere as much as cloud seeding today!
I believe that the controlled burning of the hydrogen could have the desired effect, I just can’t imagine the whole thing going as smoothly as expected! All I can imagine is the BOOM shortly before a melted balloon splats to the ground…..
In my (admittedly uneducated) searches on cloud seeding the only mention of hydrogen connected with it was the hydrogen balloons used to lift the chemicals (silver iodide, dry ice) into the air. Do you know the reason hydrogen isn’t mentioned for this purpose? I can guess why fifty pounds of dynamite isn’t part of the current recipe though… 🙂
It’s a lot of effort to extract hydrogen just to burn it. The silver salts (as used in an episode of Quantum Leap – if you got that out there?) are more encouraging the moisture in the atmosphere to precipitate, I guess. Since the Hindenburg I think hydrogen in air ships has been frowned on!
I think after the images of the Hindenburg going down it wouldn’t matter if hydrogen was the safest substance on earth, people would just not go there!
lmao – oh dear. Just watched the video clip, and I suspect the inventor imagined he’d be up there with the balloon and the dynamite, setting it off and drifting down to earth. Clearly some inventive people don’t think things through all that much. 😉
I once saw in a lecture theatre a balloon full of oxygen that had a small amount of ether injected into it before – as it floated news the ceiling – a flame was put to it that led to a big fireball. Lots of fun. But not for kids to do at home.
FM
-grin- no, I could imagine a definite downside to that experiment. 😉
Explosions are definitely the way to get students to pay attention. When we went to the open night at the local High School to encourage Number 1 son to get excited about going next year the night was made perfect by the science teacher setting a fireball loose in the kids hands one at a time. Big flame, no pain, lots of happy kids. 🙂
A friend of mine said her son was attracted to the local high school because they promised the dissection of cow eyeballs!!
That would definitely win over a few. Number 2 can’t wait for his turn to go as they do one elective class each week, the whole school being mixed up and it not being curriculum subjects. One teacher was teaching all about hovercraft, all Number 2’s dreams come true. 😀 I just hope that teacher is still doing it when he gets there!
That’s why they warn against — playing with fire.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets ummmm…. exploded. 😀
You’re probably right that dynamite isn’t the way to go in terms of inducing rain, but I can’t think of a more exciting way to try to incite a bit of precipitation. TNT makes everything better, or at least more interesting, right?
There is no reason not to try this yourself as far as I’m concerned. Well, there is that whole potential death thing but you know, get someone else to push the big red button and make sure you have a good vantage point and a bucket of water handy…. 😉
That’s right; if you’re going to be an idiot, make sure someone’s getting it on video, so the rest of us can have a laugh at your misfortune.
Absolutely, and if possible stand behind someone bigger than yourself if you aren’t completely sure you are out of the blast zone…. 😉
I wonder if Mr Haines was the inspiration for Wile. E. Coyote…
That’s all I could think of when I found this! That’s why it had to ACME dynamite. 😀
This is pure gold, Metan! Idiotic inventions, and idiots on YouTube! I was thinking along the same lines as EllaDee. It has such a cartoon feel about it.
Oh, if only they’d had YouTube back then….. 😉