報導1
London - A professor at Scotland's Edinburgh University has been awarded a government grant to develop the world's first rain-making machine, the Times reported on Monday.
Professor Stephen Salter will create a 60 metre high turbine to suck water out of the sea and turn it into water vapour through nozzles, spraying it out into the atmosphere, the daily paper said.
The rain maker, described as looking like a "giant egg-beater", would be based on catamarans and placed off the coast of desert land.
They would have to be used in places which are not totally dry, or the artificial clouds would never reach critical mass, the paper said.
They would be used in areas where there were already some clouds but not enough to produce rain.
The professor even claims his invention could help the Middle East peace process, by easing Israel's dependency on the West Bank for its water supply.
In the face of sceptics, professor Salter (62) takes a historical approach.
"They said you couldn't make ships out of steel. They said Marconi's radio waves couldn't be broadcast beyond the horizon. The Establishment is almost always wrong".
Nonetheless the British government is handing him a $160 000 development grant to get his pipe dream off the ground. - Sapa-AFP
報導2
A British inventor has been given a government grant to develop a rain-making machine.
The Times website reports Edinburgh University's Professor Stephen Salter will receive £105,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The professor's plan centres on manoeuvring a 200-foot turbine to desert-region coastlines.
Wind would drive the turbines to create rain by first sucking water out of the sea and then turning it into vapour.
Spraying the vapour into the atmosphere would trigger the creation of clouds.
The professor is aware that the plan is ambitious but has managed to persuade others that it is worth trying.
He believes that if successful, the machine could produce a cubic metre of water for just a fraction of the cost of electrical de-salination processes.
Professor Salter is previously known as the creator of floating electricity-generating devices called "Salter's Ducks" back in the 1970s.