Science: Too Much Magic

William Vittoni and Joseph Vowels were working for North American Weather Consultants of Pasadena, Calif. Their business was making rain or snow by seeding susceptible clouds with silver iodide particles. Last week they took their apparatus by auto and trailer close to the summit of a 3,700-ft. mountain near Santa Barbara, and started grinding out silver iodide to fulfill a contract with the city. "Each time we turned on the machine," said Vittoni, "we found ourselves in the center of a miniature snowstorm."

The machine worked too well. When Vittoni & Vowels quit work for the day, they found they were snowbound. They called for help by radio, but rescue squads could not reach them. On the third day, engineers bulldozed through four-foot drifts and brought the snowmakers down to civilization.