2006-12-13

No Two Snowflakes are alike











The adjacent snowflakes were created by yours truly on this website, emailed to me by an old college friend. The more snowflakes created, the more money they will donate to the Salvation Army. It is fun and quite addictive - so try creating some yourself!

I took some lovely photos from our snowfall last week, which I had hoped to post this week, but they will need to wait until I find my USB/SD Card reader. So until then, let me direct you to a website regarding Vermont's famous Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley.

Snowflake Bentley (1865-1931) of Jericho, Vermont, pioneered the area of photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals (a.k.a. snowflakes). By adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, he became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He would go on to capture more than 5000 snowflakes (samples here) during his lifetime, not finding any two alike.

There are some great resources for teaching children about Bentley and snowflakes through Jacqueline Briggs Martin's book, Snowflake Bentley (illustrated by Vermont's own Mary Azarian) and the Maine Association of School Libraries website.

"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., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."
- Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, 1925

Please note: Images are public domain, but courtesy of http://www.snowflakebentley.com/ for non-commercial purposes.


Update: You can even make some ice cream-inspired paper snowflakes, thanks to Ben & Jerry's.

5 comments:

The Contessa said...

Beautiful - and curious who sent the website???

The Contessa said...

Come on - you can tell me...

I bet it Rudy Randy Allie Valley

Or was it the

Ditch Witch Pitch Bitch....

Come on - give it up!

MapleMama said...

It was JO'H - I didn't know if she'd want her name online - hence why omitted.

Funny thing about Rudy - he's back in VT - and he called me back about 6 mos. ago. He seemed surprised I was married with a son in tow.

He, tragically, has lost two fiances to freak accidental deaths. Maybe it was a good thing for me that I left him when I did.

The Contessa said...

YIKES! That's kind of sad actually.

It's a very good thing you found Mr. Maple - I am not prepared to lose you to anything "freakish"!!!!

Ah good JOH!!!! Nice. excellent website.

Unknown said...

WOW! This tiny little web development company from Minneapolis has reached you all the way out there huh? :) They make some pretty cool websites and of course, are supporters of public radio!

Glad you found this and are enjoying it!