NY Rainmaker Rained Out

University meteorologist Wallace E. Howell '36 arrived back in Cambridge early this morning after a one-inch rainfall yesterday in New York made his services temporarily unnecessary.

Howell had planned to start making rain yesterday by dropping dry ice through a spout and hopper attachment into clouds of the Catskills, but a downpour which began at 3 a.m. yesterday morning convinced the city that the $50,000 experiment wasn't necessary.

Although the idea of "Project Cirrus" had been well received by expert meteorologists, the plan met with unexpected opposition from Catskill residents yesterday. Ulster Country farmers and hotel owners filed a suit naming Mayor William O'Dwyer and water officials of the city as "conspirators" in the perpetration of a "gigantic hoax."

The suit, which did not mention Howell, stated the outlets of various reservoirs had beer "manipulated" so as to give the appearance of being dangerously law. The report alleged that the purpose of the campaign was to sell a quantity of water meters "in excess of $300,000,000." The complaint further stated that so little is known of artificial water making experiments that it was impossible to predict accurately the results of the project.