, 1890 Bentley was born on February 9, 1865, in
Jericho, Vermont. He first became interested in
snow crystals as a
teenager on his family farm. “Always, right from the beginning it was the snowflakes that fascinated me most,” he said. “The farm folks up in this country dread the winter, but I was supremely happy.” He tried to draw what he saw through an old
microscope given to him by his mother when he was fifteen. He captured more than 5,000 images of crystals. Each crystal was caught on a
blackboard and transferred rapidly to a
microscope slide. Even at
subzero temperatures, snowflakes are
ephemeral because they
sublimate. Despite these poetic descriptions, Bentley brought an empirical method to his work. Bentley also photographed all forms of ice and natural water formations including
clouds and
fog. He was the first American to record
raindrop sizes, and was one of the first cloud
physicists. He died of
pneumonia, which he may have contracted while walking home in the snow, at his farm on December 23, 1931. and is still in print today. == Legacy ==