Winter Wonderland! Natural Symmetry? Perfected Asymmetry?
I love these very simple, yet very complex distinct snowflakes. Each one is different, like a fingerprint. How many fingers does Jack Frost have? This is my tribute to an amazing man. Mr. Wilson Bentley. On January 15, 1885, at the age of 19 years,Bentley took the world's first photomicrograph of a snow crystal.
Bentley had an irrevocable love of snow. He wrote:
"they came from that mysterious and then but little known cloud and mistland above, so seldom entered. How unique their place of origin and how strange it seemed, and indeed seems yet, that solid crystals in such immense quantities should form unsupported, up above, within the thin gas we call air, and come to us from on high. What worlds of mystery, truly how much of mystery enshrouded their origin and life history and manner and habits of growth. There seemed to be a delightful and gem-bestrewn realm of nature awaiting exploration and discovery and sure to richly reward the investigator. So I marveled not only at the exquisite loveliness of form and interior of these peerless gems from cloudland, but equally so at their almost universal habit of assuming the hexagonal form and dividing into six. What magic was there in the rule of six that made them conform so rigidly to its laws to divide into six and made these crystals from mistland conform so rigidly to its mandate?"
("Marvel of the Snow Gems" (1910), Technical World Magazine, 13, 24-27. By Wilson A. Bentley)
http://www.bentley.sciencebuff.org/BentleyWritings.htm
Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!
2 comments:
You uncover the most miraculous things! This is so lovely. I wasn't in the Christmas spirit, but I think you may have just rekindled it. Thank you.
Poetikat
aye, i love snow. catching it on my tongue and gulping it down. pure cloud water. perfect. the flakes themselves are amazing, i've always thought that.
Post a Comment