22. When Facts Fail, Fabrication Must Suffice
No serious scholars or scientists were willing to risk their reputations by having anything to do with something as wacky as the idea of Concussion Theory. So a patent lawyer named Robert G. Dyrenforth was assigned the task of carrying out the experiment. In August of 1891, Dyrenforth set up shop in a section of Texas prairie, and put on what must have been an impressive pyrotechnic display.
His men blasted clouds with mortars and with dynamite carried aloft by kites, while trailing behind them were balloons filled with flammable hydrogen. To add to the noise, Dyrenforth’s men increased the decibel levels by packing prairie dog holes full of dynamite, and setting them off as well. Unsurprisingly, the plan did not work, but Dyrenforth claimed it did. Dyrenforth’s fabrication was foiled, however, by a meteorologist who observed the experiment, and published a scathing report about it in Nature.