Langmuir and Schaefer had ruled out any chemical reactions as a cause for this effect. The water crystals did not develop without the dry ice, even though the temperature inside the freezer measured -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius). In earlier experiments using an open-top freezer, Schaefer discovered that water crystals would form when adding dry ice to the freezer. Dry ice is essentially frozen CO₂, and this substance is used in movies to produce mist without producing any moisture. Schaefer was to seed a cloud with pellets of dry ice to make it rain. Or so he thought.Įarlier that day, Langmuir had sent his assistant Vincent Schaefer 14.000 feet (approximately 4,250 meters or about half the height of Mount Everest) up in the sky in a small prop plane that lifted from Schenectady airport, near Albany, NY. Even though the Chemist Langmuir had received a Nobel Prize in 1932, the discovery of this day in November indeed was more groundbreaking. November 13th, 1946, was a fantastic day for Irving Langmuir.
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