Who discovered that no two snowflakes are alike?
Is there any truth to the old saying, “No two snowflakes are alike”? Wilson A. Bentley, a farmer and amateur meteorologist, sought to answer that question, dedicating himself to observing flakes of snow for 50 years. See the first-ever photos of snowflakes!
Bentley was born in 1865 and raised on a farm near Jericho, Vermont, where his mother, a former teacher, homeschooled him and his brother when they weren’t doing farm chores.
On his 15th birthday, Bentley’s mother gave him the use of an old microscope. It was snowing that day, and the boy succeeded in getting a glimpse of a six-sided snowflake with the instrument; this was the beginning of a fascination that lasted the rest of his life.
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Fussing With Snowflakes
When he was 17, Bentley asked his parents to buy him a new, better microscope and a camera. His father argued that “fussing with snowflakes” was a waste of time. Finally, he gave in.
Bentley built a wooden frame to hold the new equipment and then spent 2 years figuring out how to take a picture of a snowflake under a microscope. On January 15, 1885, he did it, creating the world’s first photomicrograph.
Every winter for the rest of his life, Bentley photographed and studied snowflakes in an unheated room in the back of the house.
The process was difficult and cold. Outdoors, he collected snowflakes on a wooden tray that was painted black. Once inside, while still wearing big mittens to keep his hands warm, he used a straw plucked from a broom to pick up the snowflake and place it on a microscope slide. Sometimes he nudged the snowflake into place with a feather. Then, being careful not to breathe on the flake, he quickly examined and photographed it.
“Look and Marvel”
Whenever it snowed, Bentley caught and captured flakes, sometimes working all night. He found that most snowflakes had six sides, but others looked like triangles, spools of thread, or columns—but no two were alike.
Taking photomicrographs was only half of a long process. In those days, glass plates were used to take photographs. Bentley developed the plates in a darkroom under some stairs and then carried the plates to a nearby stream to wash them. Sometimes he did this at night, in the dark.
In warm months, Bentley presented outdoor slide shows about snowflakes to family and friends. He shined a kerosene lamp through a projector that held his glass plates. The lamplight cast the snowflake images onto a bedsheet hung up to serve as a screen.
“The mysteries of the universe are about to reveal themselves,” he would say. “Look and marvel.”
“Some Wonderful Prize”
Bentley shared his snowflakes with anyone who was interested. He sold prints of his photomicrographs for 5 cents each. He wrote articles for scientists and for magazines such as National Geographic.
Occasionally, he felt discouraged that few people seemed to care about his work. Still, he never stopped. At age 65, he photographed his 5,000th snowflake.
Slowly, people became interested. Reporters sometimes appeared at his door. People began to call him “the Snowflake Man” and “Professor Bentley.” Jewelry makers copied the snowflake designs.
In 1920, Bentley was elected as one of the first members of the American Meteorological Society, which later awarded him its first research grant in 1924.
Bentley’s proudest moment came in 1931 upon publication of his book Snow Crystals, which contained 2,453 of his photographs.
A few weeks later, on December 7, he wrote in his weather notebook: “Cold north wind afternoon. Snow flying.” This was to be his last entry. He became sick and died of pneumonia on December 23.
Bentley found that snowflakes were not alike and could, in fact, be very different!
Alice Cary
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The snowflakes in the photos are simply beautiful! Who would have thought to do such a thing. I'm so glad Mr Bentley had a curious mind and the means to do his wonderful research. I wish I could get a copy of his book.
When one considers the trillions upon trillions of snowflakes fallen every winter for millions of years I find it ludicrous to state that no two are alike. There is simply no way to know.
I had the good fortune to attend college with one of his descendents. It was a thrill to see her smile and excitement as she ran out of the dorm with her camera on the first snow of winter. She was every bit as enthralled as Wilson Bentley. How wonderful she continued Wilson's research! Truly exquisite.
I would like to comment on Tom's comment on photographing snow flames and window frost..I'd like to thank him for having the ability and patience to do such a thing ..if it wasn't for photographers such as him ..we that don't have that ability would never know the beauty of nature's artistic works of art..beautiful ! Thank you Tom!
I have studied Mr. Bently and amazing what he did under those cold conditions.I am also a photographer that photographed snow flakes and window frost. Very hard to accomplish in extreme cold conditions. Perhaps my methods will assist others attempting the same.
For window frost, it's on an outside storm window that had humid leaks. I'd have a very cold box (outside temp has to be no higher than 10.degs. Quickly I'd go in the house with the box, throw up the inside window and take and put the storm window in the box and run back outside. I'd have my camera equipment (high magnification) set the window on a supported base, vertically. Being cold I'd have time to focus and click. There were many pics on a window pane. This happened during the winter cold times.
For snow flakes, I'd have a window pane horizontal outside in the snow to collect the flakes. The brush away not wanted flakes and do the same as with the frost. Bently photos were a negative, he scraped away the black areas around the image leaving only the snowflake. Very time consuming. I could get a snow flake to fill the entire viewing area.
During a snow storm there are many different conditions that change the style of the snowflake. In one storm there could be 10 types of snowflakes. Humidity and temperatures affect a storm. There are wet large flakes and small dry flakes. I have photo displays on my images a few years ago and I'm a published photographer. Spent many winters photo'ing.
How can anyone say there's no two flakes alike? How does anyone know, so I don't dispute. It's just fun to see nature up close. Want to argue that there are more stars in the Universe than all the sands on Earth? Think about it. What is so small is so huge.
Winter is just another season to get involved with. Good photographing and let the mind imagine what you can do.
This is a beautiful book, written for children, but suitable for all. I read it to my Kindergarten years ago when we were folding white papers to cut into snowflake shapes. We also enjoyed a visit with a man who was a master at cutting paper into shapes of amazing beauty, and we gave him a copy of Snowflake Bentley. Mr. Bentley is an inspiration.
Beautiful !!! Such a portrait of diligence, perseverance, humility and child-like wonder at Almighty God's creations, rare virtues, indeed, in today's world.
Thank you for this wonderful expose.
I really dont know where to begin except to say it does my soul good to know he lived long enough to gain recognition for his work.
Such a mind blowing story!
Reading this article made my day. It would be an extraordinary story if Mr. Bentley made the effort to photograph 5,000 snowflakes today. It's almost incomprehensible that he had the wherewithal to do that in his time in the late 1800's/early 1900's given the process necessary to develop *any* photograph, let alone something as fragile and fleeting as a snowflake! I can only imagine the thrill he experienced upon capturing the first image that would motivate him to continue on.
[I wonder if computer games and other forms of entertainment providing instant gratification had been invented, if the fifteen-year old Wilson Bentley would have been occupying himself with an old microscope in the first place; I wonder if he carried around a cell phone if he would have been outside one snowy day, his face downward, but his nose not in a screen but observing a snowflake caught on his mitten.]
A final note. To the reader below who tried to throw cold water on this heartwarming story, I have two things to say. First, I suggest that she read The Old Farmer's Almanac article "A GUIDE TO SNOWFLAKES: NO TWO ALIKE?" to gain a general understanding of why snowflakes have the shapes they do. The odds in which a quintillion+ water molecules can be formed into six-sided crystals is astronomically high, creating *very high odds* that no two snowflakes are alike - so high it could certainly be said, "in effect" no two snowflakes are alike. But hang on. That's sort of theoretic. Put the subject into a search bar for more technical explanations of snow crystal formation, and the situation gets "curiouser and curiouser"
Given the reality of an infinite number of (microscopic and macroscopic) conditions under which a snow crystal can be formed, each nuance of difference creating a slightly different structure, if only infinitesimally so, it appears that if you looked closely enough, each snowflake would actually be unique.
However, secondly, if we merely observe that the reader's comment "You can't prove a negative" is itself a negative, then assuming her logic holds true, her own statement cannot be proven. (How she gets away with throwing about unproven statements as if fact, I don't know! :D) In any event, we can properly refocus attention on the tenacity of a curious teenager and the beauty of the ephemeral snowflake he was able to capture and spent his lifetime sharing with the rest of us.
I am impressed with your comment. Clearly a thinking person!
