Fanless snow gun

Abstract

A fanless snow gun for producing man-made snow comprises one or more water nozzles for projecting a substantially conical spray of water particles into the air, and a plurality of nucleating nozzles arranged rearwardly of and at spaced locations surrounding the water nozzles for injecting ice nuclei into the water spray to effect conversion of the water particles to snow prior to descending to the ground. To compensate for the absence of an independent source of air (e.g. a motorized fan) for cooling the water particles provided by the water nozzles, the snow gun is adapted to be supported at least 20 feet above ground level to increase the particle flight time and, hence cooling time, the water particle size is limited to about 300 microns or smaller to facilitate particle cooling and conversion to ice crystals, and the ratio of ice nuclei-to-water particles in the spray is increased by at least a factor of at least two compared to the same ratio in conventional fan guns.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.