To this class belongs the project of producing rain
by sound. As I write, the daily journals are announcing the
brilliant success of experiments in this direction; yet I
unhesitatingly maintain that sound cannot make rain, and propose
to adduce all necessary proof of my thesis. The nature of sound is
fully understood, and so are the conditions under which the
aqueous vapor in the atmosphere may be condensed. Let us see how
the case stands.
A room of average size, at ordinary temperature and under usual
conditions, contains about a quart of water in the form of
invisible vapor. The whole atmosphere is impregnated with vapor in
about the same proportion. We must, however, distinguish between
this invisible vapor and the clouds or other visible masses to
which the same term is often applied. The distinction may be very
clearly seen by watching the steam coming from the spout of a
boiling kettle. Immediately at the spout the escaping steam is
transparent and invisible; an inch or two away a white cloud is
formed, which we commonly call steam, and which is seen belching
out to a distance of one or more feet, and perhaps filling a
considerable space around the kettle; at a still greater distance
this cloud gradually disappears.
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