Name Robert George | Died 1910 | |
Robert Saint George Dy'renforth (1844–1910) was an American soldier and lawyer. He was born in Chicago, graduated at Breslau in 1861, and served in the United States Army (1861–66) as major of volunteer cavalry, assistant inspector general and signal officer in the Department of the Missouri, and was several times brevetted. In 1866 he was correspondent of the Chicago Post and Times during the war between Austria and Prussia. He studied mechanical engineering at Heidelberg in 1866-69. He worked in the U. S. Patent Office (1871–85), resigned from there in 1885 and practiced as a patent and corporation lawyer.
"Rain Maker"
Robert Saint George Dyrenforth became popularly known as "Rain Maker" while carrying out a series of experiments for the government, using violent explosions in Texas to condense water vapor into rain. According to Timothy Egan in his 2006 book, "The Worst Hard Time", Mr. Dyrenforth's efforts were entirely unsuccessful. They did not yield a single drop of rain. From then on, he was called "Dry-Henceforth".