Larry Dane Brimner

Scientist or huckster? During the early twentieth century, Charles Mallory Hatfield claimed that he could coax rain from the sky. His services were offered to drought-plagued cities at the price of up to $1000 per inch of rain, and his success rate was remarkable. (His younger brother, Paul, and his self-appointed "promoter" Fred Binney ran the business side, leaving Charles to focus on his "secret chemical" concoction.) In December 1915, the San Diego city council contacted Hatfield, who promised to fill the Morena Reservoir—ten billion gallons!—within a year. The next month it started to pour: flooding the city, destroying roads and bridges, and sweeping away homes. Brimner's well-paced account begins with Hatfield on New Year's Day in 1916, secreted away at his camp near San Diego having just accepted the city's challenge ("wearing a fedora and carrying a rifle…patrolling the fence, intent on keeping unwanted visitors at a distance"). Brimner then goes back to describe Hatfield's early life and provide a bit on the history of pluviculture ("the art of making it rain") and the people—mostly shysters