Robert Saint George Dyrenforth

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.