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I grew up in Colorado Springs, and remember hearing all sorts of stories about Tesla. One rumor I heard involved Tesla and some sort of weather control device. Have you heard this story, or found any substantiation?

As you probably know, in 1899 Nikola Tesla spent some time in Colorado Springs.  He was there to work out various design details for the wireless communications facility that he would later build on the North Shore of Long Island, New York.  In 1917 during a speech before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers Tesla said that while in Colorado his large oscillator once created a dense cloud of water vapor inside of the laboratory structure.  The story you heard is probably related to this incident.  He speculated that properly designed plants might be installed in arid regions to draw in water for irrigation.  The anticipated process could involve the creation of what might be called artificial rain.  By the way, the entire speech is reprinted in the book Tesla Said (see page 188 for the specific account).

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