Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1893 — WRITING ON THE CLOUDS. [ARTICLE]

WRITING ON THE CLOUDS.

World’a Fair Scientists Experimenting With a Huge Projector. Chicago Record. “The time is coming when a man will sit on his front doorstep of an evening and read news bulletins from the clouds,” said M. E. Sperry, last night. “With a stereopticon the size’of a Krtipp’gun and a fleecy cloud for a screen,” he continued, election returns will be projected in to the sky so that a whole city will know how many precincts have been heard from and what the net gain seems to be. What if there are no clouds? That is easy enough. Make some clouds.”

They made clouds last night which floated out over Lake Michigan chased by nimble search lights. Mr. Sperry, the electrician, and James Pain, the fireworks man, stood with some workmen at the southeast corner of the Manufacture’s roof. Beside them was a search light as large as a hogshead. It threw a ’Straight beam for a mile out over the rough waters of the lake. At that height the wind came strong and frosty. The men were bundled in their overcoats. ~~ More than 1,000 feet out from the breakers which pounded the shore two specks of light could be seen trembling above the water. These lights marked the location of a raft where the cloud makers were waiting. Mr. Pain leaned over the railing, and swung a lantern five times. From the raft, which was nearly 2,000 feet from where he stood, came an answering signal. Then between the distant lights rose a spit of fire, the sound of a muffled explosion was heard above the surf roar, and a bomb lifted itself high into the air and burst. The glaring focus of the search light was swung to the point from which the bomb had been shot, and there it caught a white mass of smoke curling slowly upward. As it rose the white circle of light followed it. “There we have our screen," said Mr. Sperry; “with a strong focus from a projector we could show on that cloud of smoke a picture of Grover Cleveland or an American eagle or something of that kind." Five bombs were sent up, one after another, and each time the search light centered on the clouds of smoke for each discharge there was one puff of smoke from the raft and another in the air where the bomb exploded. That was as far as the experiment went. It had been intended to throw pictures and words from the projector, but the large mirror behind the electric lights acted in a contrary manner, and it was impossible to get a proper focus, The projector is at the southwest corner of the Manufacture’s roof, and has the appearance of an overgrown stereopticon. The mirror is over 3 feet in diameter and from that on out to the last lens is a distance of some 12 feet. The projection of words and pictures upon clouds of smoke or vapor has been successfully accomplished on the other side of the Atlantic, and late experiments at Mount Washington have been accompanied by good results.