With water shortages a constant, Westerners are looking at wacky (and not so wacky) ways to squeeze more water out of the sky and land. High Country News - by Jonathan Thompson
(This is idea 10 - click on the link below for the others; ed) Modern-day cloud seeding may have its roots in the mysterious craft of Charles Mallory Hatfield. Back in the early 1900s, Hatfield built a tower in the San Gabriels from which he disseminated his secret concoction of 23 chemicals into the air in order to create rain. After a storm came, local ranchers paid him $1,000 for his "moisture acceleration" talents. Later, the city of San Diego hired him. A few days after he set up his tower, a deluge struck, breaking a dam and wreaking havoc. The city never paid him.