Catch a falling snowflake

'Tis a winter to delight the Snowflake Man of Jericho, Vermont. Born on Feb. 9, 1865 Wilson Alwyn Bentley was introduced to the beauty of a snowflake by his mother. When he was 11 she showed him one under a cheap microscope, leading him to his life-long obsession with the ephemeral snowflake. A single snowflake is a beautiful sight. It's when billions and billions pile up in a long Iowa winter that I tend to forget how lovely each one is.

When Bentley was 20 his mother persuaded his father to spend about $100 to buy him a good camera and microscope. For almost the next 50 winters he would set up this equipment in an unheated shed using it to record nearly 6000 photographs of individual snowflakes, never finding two exactly the same.

Although Bentley's formal education ended at 8th grade his studies of snowflakes formed the basis of much of what we know about them. His photomicrographs have appeared in magazines, textbooks, and encyclopedias and have been the inspiration for many artists. Just last month 10 of his images were offered for sale for $4800 at the American Antiques Show in New York.

Bentley described the conditions under which different kinds of snowflakes form. Each snowflake begins as water vapor which condenses into a hexagonal crystal in clouds. As this crystal moves through the clouds more crystals are added forming the basic shapes of plates, needles or stars. Humidity, temperature, and the direction of the wind help to determine the final formation. He wrote "From a careful study of the internal structure of each wonderfully delicate and exquisite snowflake much may be learned of the changes through which it passed on its journey through cloud land. Was ever life history written in more dainty hieroglyphics!"

His technique for capturing snowflakes was to stand in the doorway of his unheated shed holding out a smooth board painted black. To keep heat from being transferred from his mittened hands he held the 12 by 12 inch board with wire handles. Then he would use a magnifying glass to examine the flakes, brushing away damaged ones with a bird feather and transferring good ones to a glass plate for microscopic examination.

Snow began to fall on this 63rd birthday. Before the storm ended he had taken 100 photomicrographs, the most from a single snowfall. He called the pictures "a birthday gift from kind winter."

Bentley who never married spent his entire life on the remote farm where he was born, dying from pneumonia on Dec. 31, 1931. At 4 ft 5 inches tall, he was slight of build with a prominent New England nose. His neighbors described him as a quiet gentle man, although some thought him a little strange "chasing snowflakes in every storm."

Ah, yes, Bentley would have loved this winter with its snow after snow after snow. And the best may be yet to come as February is usually the snowiest month of the year.

Helen Boertje 020410

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