By Karen Rice
Official Kids Mag
His real name was Wilson A. Bentley,
and he was born on February 9, 1865
in Jericho, Vermont. Wilson grew up on
a farm and was fascinated the natural
world around him. As a boy, he loved to
look closely at butterflies, leaves, spider
webs and raindrops. Most of all, he
loved snow. That was lucky because in
Vermont, where he lived, they got about
120 inches of snow a year!
For his fifteenth birthday Wilson got a
microscope.
"When the other boys of my age were
playing with popguns and slingshots, I
was absorbed in studying things under
this microscope: drops of water, tiny
fragments of stone, a feather dropped
from a bird's wing, a delicately veined
petal from some flower," Wilson said.
His hobby took up all his free time,
and others often even made fun of him
for it. His own father did not understand
his son's fascination, and wanted him to
take more of an interest in farming.
Wilson was most fascinated by
snowflakes, and became determined to
somehow capture their beauty.
"Under the microscope, I found that
snowflakes were miracles of beauty;
and it seemed a shame that this beauty
should not be seen and appreciated by
others. Every crystal was a masterpiece
of design and no one design was ever
repeated," he said.
At first Wilson tried drawing the
snowflakes, but he wasn't satisfied. Four
years later, in 1885, by connecting his
microscope to a camera, he became the
first person to successfully photograph a
snowflake.
Wilson was very patient, working
in the cold for hours at a time
while he attempted to catch falling
snowflakes. He would carefully pick
up a snowflake with a feather and
place it under the lens.
Wilson would eventually go
on to photograph more than
5,000 snowflakes, and he never
found two that were the same.
He was considered a pioneer
in in "photomicrography," the
photographing of very small objects,
especially of snowflakes.
His photomicrographs and his
writings became popular all over
the world. In November of 1931, his
book "Snow Crystals" was published
and is still in print today.
A month later, on December 23,
1931, Wilson caught pneumonia
from walking through a blizzard and
died at his family farm in Jericho.
Learn more about the man who
showed snowflakes to the world by
reading the book "Snowflake Bentley"
by Jacqueline Briggs Martin or visiting
www.snowflakebentley.com.
Who was
"Snowflake" bentley?
"no two
snowflakes
are alike."
~ William
"snowflake"
Bentley
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www.officialKidsMag.com • January 2021 • 47
