Controlling the weather remains the province of science fiction novels. However, in 1945 a self-taught chemist named Vincent J. Schaefer attempted to make that human fantasy a reality. Obviously, since we’re still living without calendars of prescribed weather, one might assume that Schaefer failed miserably, but you’d be wrong.

Not only did he succeed but the man whose only formal education included “tree surgery” from the Davey Institute gifted the world a litany of inventions and discoveries that still affect our very lives today. Ironically, as Schaefer once said his ignorance led the way, "Well-trained men wouldn't do the things I do. If I found anything, it's most likely because I didn't know better." Here’s Schaefer’s unlikely story.

Rough Start

Unfortunately, for Schaefer and potentially mankind, the brilliant youth was forced to leave school at the tender age of 15 to support his brothers and sisters. Luckily, he found work at General Electric as a drill press operator. Naturally, his quick mind and natural curiosity pushed him into far more influential work. As he recalled, "From the beginning, I wanted to get into the lab, and kept pestering them until they put me into the model machine shop."

A Guiding Hand

Quickly, the Nobel laureate Dr. Irving Langmuir took notice of Schaefer’s natural acumen and became his mentor. Alongside Langmuir, his voracious student devoured endless amounts of information while sharing their love of the outdoors. Together, the pair developed a number of inventions geared toward the needs of WWII.

They saved thousands of lives with their gas mask filters and submarine detectors while also intriguing military minds with what amounted to the world’s first smoke machine. Schaefer’s instinctive beginnings made their prototype smoke machine using “an oil can, some fuel, and an electric hot plate.”

One Man’s Accident Is Another’s Invention

Eventually, Schaefer’s research attempted to solve icing on military airplanes along with static radio interference which pushed him down the road of weather manipulation. However, like most major discoveries, the intuitive scientist developed his rainmaker theory mostly by accident. At first, he lined a freezer with black velvet and attempted to create snow by sprinkling a wide variety of materials like talcum powder, sulfur, household cleansers, and even sand. Schaefer hoped that one of these items would help form the nuclei for snowflakes but to no avail.

It wasn’t until a hot summer day at GE that Schaefer, frustrated by the inability to get his freezer to the proper temperature, dumped dry ice into it so he could continue with his experiments. Immediately, the cloud of dry ice started to form tiny ice crystals caused by the sudden drop in temperature.

The Real Rainmaker

After some more tests, Schaefer and Dr. Langmuir went to Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, and dropped six pounds of dry ice from an airplane. Through binoculars, the Nobel Laureate noted "It seemed as though the cloud almost exploded”. The pair had created the first artificial snowfall and after further research with Dr. Bernard Vonnegut, they used silver iodide for seeding clouds.

Close But No Cigar

Obviously, their discovery made major waves, and companies all across the world reached out to them, hoping the scientists’ “cloud seeding techniques” could help their bottom line. Such a monumental idea also began a debate over the ethics of “stealing rain.”

Regrettably, it turned out that controlling the weather was a lot harder than dumping certain ingredients into the atmosphere. Apparently, “seeding” the cloud with the critical elements looks like a walk in the park compared to aiming said water unto the desired location. Still, their research is used today in helping airports clear clouds and other minor applications.