Snow making apparatus and methods

Snow making apparatus comprising a fan having a hub;

• means mounting said hub for rotation about an axis;
• a plurality of blades secured to said hub for rotation therewith and being circumferentially spaced about said axis, said blades being grouped in successive sets each of which comprises a first blade, a second blade, and a third blade, said first blade of each set being of shorter radial length than the second blade of such set, and the second blade of each set being of shorter radial length than the third blade of such set, each of said blades having a radially inner root and a radially outer tip;
• means for supplying water to each of said blades;
• and means for rotating said hub at a speed sufficient to cause some of the water supplied to each of said blades to cascade from its tip onto a radially longer trailing blade.

A method of making snow comprising supplying water from a source thereof to rotating fan blades and in such quantity that water may pass over each blade in a film from its leading edge toward its trailing edge and from its root radially outwardly to its tip;

• rotating said blades at a speed to produce an aerosol in which water discharged from the blades may be entrained;
• cascading water from a leading blade onto an immediately trailing blade;
• cascading water from said immediately trailing blade onto a further trailing blade;
• and cascading water from said further trailing blade partially into said aerosol and partially onto another trailing blade corresponding to said further trailing blade, whereby the water passing over said further trailing blade includes water from said source, water cascaded from said immediately trailing blade, and water cascaded from an upstream blade corresponding to said further trailing blade.