15. The Belief That Human Actions Can Invite Rain
For ages, humans have believed that they could invite rain. In ancient times, it was believed that battles were often followed by rain because of religious reasons. In the modern era, that belief was updated with pseudo-scientific theories that revolved around dins of battle that shook the clouds and caused them to release their water. Serious attempts, with official support from the US government, were made to pursue that line of logic and try to make it rain in the Gilded Age.
In 1871, former Civil War general Edward Powers wrote War and the Weather, in which he documented several historic battles that were followed by rain. Powers theorized that the din of battle agitated the clouds, and caused them to release their rain. He took that premise to an extreme conclusion that came to be known as “Concussion Theory”: loud noises could be used to force clouds to yield rain on demand. As Powers put it: “If lightning and thunder and rain have been brought on by the agency of man, when bloodshed and slaughter were only intended, this surely can be done without these latter concomitants“. In 1891, Robert G. Dyrenforth was tasked with testing that theory.
