Carl Edgar Myers
Carl Edgar Myers (March 2, 1842 – November 30, 1925) was an American businessman, scientist, inventor, meteorologist, balloonist, and aeronautical engineer. He invented many types of hydrogen balloon airships and related equipment. His business of making passenger airship balloons and instrument balloons at his "balloon farm" was well known throughout the United States in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He invented a machine for varnishing fabric that would make it impervious to hydrogen so that the finished product could be made into large envelopes for lighter-than-air balloons.
Myers also experimented in making artificial rain in areas where rain was deficient for agriculture. He made oxy-hydrogen balloons that were exploded at high altitude to cause rain. He contracted with the U.S. government and lumber companies to make these balloon "bombs" for the production of man-made rain.
Myers was a manager for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and the superintendent of their Aeronautic Concourse for balloon demonstrations and aerial races. He made balloon military warships and inventions that could be used for defense in case of attack by air by foreign interests and demonstrated at the Fair.
Myers, born March 2, 1842, was of German descent and the son of Abram Myers and Ann Ela Myers. His birthplace was Fort Herkimer in New York state, but he grew up in the nearby town of Mohawk. Myers attended a school run by a scientist, which stimulated his scientific curiosity. At school he became interested in the principles of electricity and all related matters.
Myers earned extra money from fulfilling requests for art work and building mechanical gadgets for others. He spent most of this money on materials for his experiments and on science books. He spent his extra time in workshops and laboratories to learn scientific principles, and his spare time in the woods to learn about nature. He was a leader among his classmates and the local teenagers.
Myers had mechanical understanding and could improve many devices. One was an invention that he patented of a kerosene lamp damper that reduced considerably the smoke from its flame. Another innovation, of which he was very proud, was an automatic self-recording mercury barometer that recorded its measurements on a strip of paper; with this meteorological instrument he kept a continuous barometric record that covered a span of 30 years.
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