Vincent Schaefer

Vincent Joseph Schaefer (July 4, 1906 – July 25, 1993) was an American chemist and meteorologist who developed cloud seeding. On November 13, 1946, while a researcher at the General Electric Research Laboratory, Schaefer modified clouds in the Berkshire Mountains by seeding them with dry ice. While he was self-taught and never completed high school, he was issued 14 patents.

Personal life Vincent J. Schaefer was the oldest son of Peter Aloysius Schaefer and Rose Agnes (Holtslag) Schaefer. He had two younger brothers, Paul and Carl, and two younger sisters, Gertrude and Margaret. a modification of the Langmuir–Blodgett method.

After his promotion to research associate in 1938, Schaefer continued to work closely with Langmuir on the many projects Langmuir obtained through his involvement on national advisory committees, particularly related to military matters in the years immediately before and during the Second World War. This work included research on gas mask filtration of smokes, submarine detection with binaural sound, and the formation of artificial fogs using smoke generators—a project which reached fruition at Vrooman's Nose in the Schoharie Valley with a demonstration for military observers.

During his years as Langmuir's assistant, Langmuir allowed and encouraged Schaefer to carry on his own research projects. As an example of this, in 1940, Schaefer became known in his own right for the development of a method to make replicas of individual snowflakes using a thin plastic coating. This discovery brought him national publicity in popular magazines and an abundance of correspondence from individuals, including many students, seeking to replicate his procedure.

In 1943, the focus of Schaefer's and Langmuir's research shifted to precipitation static, aircraft icing, ice nuclei, and cloud physics, and many of their experiments were carried out at Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. In the summer of 1946, Schaefer found his experimental "cold box" too warm for some laboratory tests he wanted to perform. Determined to get on with his work, he located some "dry ice" (solid CO2) and placed it into the bottom of the "cold box." Creating a cloud with his breath he observed a sudden and heretofore unseen bluish haze that suddenly turned into millions of microscopic ice crystals that dazzled him in the strobe lit chamber. He had stumbled onto the very principle that was hidden in all previous experiments—the stimulating effect of a sudden change in heat/cold, humidity, in supercooled water spontaneously producing billions of ice nuclei. Through scores of repeated experiments he quickly developed a method to "seed" supercooled clouds with dry ice.

In November 1946, Schaefer conducted a successful field test seeding a natural cloud by airplane—with dramatic ice and snow effect. The resulting publicity brought an abundance of new correspondence, this time from people and businesses making requests for snow and water as well as scientists around the world also working on weather modification to change local weather conditions for the better. Schaefer's discovery also led to debates over the appropriateness of tampering with nature through cloud seeding. In addition, the successful field test enabled Langmuir to obtain federal funding to support additional research in cloud seeding and weather modification by the GE Research Laboratory. Schaefer was coordinator of the laboratory portion of Project Cirrus while the Air Force and Navy supplied the aircraft and pilots to carry out field tests and to collect the data used at the Research Laboratory. Field tests were conducted in the Schenectady area as well as in Puerto Rico and New Mexico.

When the military pilots working on Project Cirrus were assigned to duties in connection with the Korean War, GE recommended that Project Cirrus be discontinued after comprehensive reports were prepared of the project and the discoveries made. The final Project Cirrus report was issued in March 1953.

Munitalp Foundation While Project Cirrus was winding down, Schaefer was approached by Vernon Crudge on behalf of the trustees of the Munitalp Foundation to work on Munitalp's meteorological research program. For a time, Schaefer worked for both the Research Laboratory and Munitalp, and in 1954 he left the Research Laboratory to become the Director of Research of Munitalp. At Munitalp, Schaefer worked with the U.S. Forest Service at the Priest River Experimental Forest in northern Idaho with Harry T. Gisborne, noted fire researcher, on Project Skyfire, a program to determine the uses of cloud seeding to affect the patterns of lightning in thunderstorms (and the resulting forest fires started by lightning). Project Skyfire had its roots in an association between the Forest Service and Schaefer begun in the early days of Project Cirrus. While at Munitalp Schaefer also worked on developing a mobile atmospheric research laboratory and time-lapse films of clouds. Schaefer left Munitalp in 1958, turning down an offer to move with the Foundation to Kenya, but he remained an adviser to Munitalp for several years after that.

Scientific education After leaving Munitalp, Schaefer's career turned towards scientific education, and let him put his belief in the power of experimentation and observation over book-learning into practice. He worked with the American Meteorological Society and Natural Science Foundation on an educational film program and to develop the Natural Sciences Institute summer programs which gave high school students the opportunity to work with scientists and on their own to do field research and experimentation. From 1959 to 1961, Schaefer was director of the Atmospheric Science Center at the Loomis School in Connecticut.

During the 1970s, he organized and led annual winter expeditions for 8-10 research scientists to Yellowstone National Park where massive amounts of supercooled clouds were produced by the many geysers, including Old Faithful. There at negative 20-50 Fahrenheit conditions enabled the assembled researchers to perform numerous experiments using dry ice, silver iodide to convert the supercooled water to ice crystals at ground level. Temperature and ice crystal formations allowed first-hand observation of the full range of halo and corona optical effects.

Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), University at Albany, State University of New York From 1962 to 1968, the NSI program was continued with Schaefer's directorship under the auspices of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the State University of New York at Albany (as the University at Albany, State University of New York was then known). During this period, Schaefer also continued his consulting work for many companies, government agencies, and universities. These consulting activities spanned most of Schaefer's career, and extended beyond his retirement from ASRC in 1976.

Schaefer helped found ASRC in 1960 and served as its Director of Research until 1966 when he became Director. Schaefer brought highly qualified atmospheric science researchers to ASRC, many of whom he had met through his work at GE and Munitalp. Bernard Vonnegut, Raymond Falconer and Duncan Blanchard were all veterans of Project Cirrus who joined Schaefer at ASRC. During his years at ASRC, in addition to the NSI summer programs, Schaefer led annual research expeditions to Yellowstone National Park for atmospheric scientists to work in the outdoor laboratory it provided each January. In the 1970s, Schaefer's own research interests focused on solar energy, aerosols, gases, air quality, and pollution particles in the atmosphere. His work in some of these areas culminated in a three-part report on Air Quality on the Global Scale in 1978. In addition, during the 1970s, Schaefer was an instructor in the American Association for the Advancement of Science Chautauqua short courses for science teachers.

Publications (selected) The presence of ozone, nitric acid, nitrogen dioxide and ammonia in the atmosphere, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, 1978. The air quality patterns of aerosols on the global scale, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, 1976. Hailstorms and hailstones of the western Great Plains, Smithsonian Institution, 1961. The possibilities of modifying lightning storms in the northern Rockies, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest & Range Experiment Station, 1949. Heat requirements for instruments and airfoils during icing storms on Mt. Washington, General Electric Research Laboratory, 1946. The Use of high speed model propellers for studying de-icing coatings at the Mt. Washington Observatory, General Electric Research Laboratory, 1946. The Liquid water content of summer clouds on the summit of Mt. Washington, General Electric Research Laboratory, 1946. The Preparation and use of water sensitive coatings for sampling cloud particles, General Electric Research Laboratory, 1946. A Heated, vaned pitot tube and a recorder for measuring air speed under severe icing conditions, General Electric Research Laboratory, 1946. Fossilizing snowflakes, 1941. Serendipity in Science: Twenty Years at Langmuir University, An Autobiography by Vincent J Schaefer, ScD, Compiled and Edited by Don Rittner, Square Circle Press, Voorheesville, NY 2013 (405 pages, 15 Chapters, illustrations and B/W photographs)

Patents Filed Apr 12, 1935-"Treatment of Materials" Filed Dec 6, 1954-"Coating for Electric Devices" Filed Apr 12, 1941-"Light-Dividing Element" Filed Jun 27, 1941-"Method of Producing Solids of Desired Configuration" Filed Jun 21, 1944-"Cathode Ray Tube" Filed Mar 24, 1943-"Method and Apparatus for Producing Aerosols"(with Irving Langmuir) Filed Sep 18, 1947-"Cloud Moisture Meter" Filed Nov 5, 1947-"Method of Making Electrical Indicators of Mechanical Expansion"(with Katharine Blodgett) Filed Jan 21, 1948-"Method of Crystal Formation and Precipitation"(with Bernard Vonnegut) Filed Nov 18, 1947-"Electrical Moisture Meter" Filed Jan 29, 1948-"Method of Crystal Formation and Precipitation" Filed Nov 5, 1947-"Electrical Indicator of Mechanical Expansion"(with Katharine Blodgett) Filed Mar 6, 1952-"Method and Apparatus for Detecting Minute Crystal Forming Particles" Filed Dec 6, 1954-"Method of Depositing a Silver Film"