Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) spent his life in Jericho, Vermont, where he developed a keen interest in snowflakes since he was a child. He started collecting snowflakes and tried to draw detailed drawings for each snowflake, but the tiny size of the snow crystals and the speed of melting made this a futile task. At the age of 15, under the microscope his mother gave him, Bentley began experimenting with photography to capture elusive snowflake designs.

Four years later, after repeated trials and tribulations, he produced the first photo of a single snowflake. Over the next 47 winters, Bentley produced more than 5,000 single-piece snowflake photos. More than 2,400 of his images were published in 1931 in a book called "Snow Crystal", which is still in print today, earning the farmer the affectionate nickname "Snowflake" Bentley.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes are beautiful miracles," Bentley wrote in 1925. "Each crystal is a masterpiece of design, no design can be repeated."

Based on his thousands of photos, he was the first to assert that no two snowflakes are the same, although they may have similarities. Bentley and the University of Vermont co-author George Henry Perkins published an article to demonstrate this. It attracted the attention of the public, but is it true?

When water vapor in high places in the atmosphere condenses on dust or pollen particles, snowflakes begin to form and then freeze into tiny ice crystals. This initial crystal acts as a seed for the growth of snowflakes. The crystal reflects the shape of the molecules that formed it. All snowflakes have a hexagonal or hexagonal shape, but have a unique geometric shape-from flat plate-like prisms to delicate branch structures. These differences are due to the small changes in temperature and humidity encountered by the growing crystal during the landing process.

Most meteorologists agree that it is very unlikely that two snowflakes will experience the same conditions on a micro level as they move downwards, so-theoretically-accept Bentley's belief that no two snowflakes are the same.

The Icelandic chemist Tryggvi Emilsson was inspired by Bentley's snowflake photos and wanted to do better: preserve the real snow crystal so that it can be seen even in the summer heat wave, or as a pleasant memory many years later. He designed a simple preservation method, using a common daily household item, super glue. He produced his first snowflake "fossil" in 1979.

To preserve snowflakes using Emilsson’s method, you need the following items: snow (we usually have a lot in winter in the northeast), some glass microscope slides and coverslips (available easily and cheaply on the Internet), a piece of black or The dark blue cloth or construction paper used to collect snowflakes, a small artist paintbrush, and a bottle of liquid superglue (the superglue gel version does not work).

In order to keep all these items cold before they are needed, I store them in a plastic box in the refrigerator. When you are ready to start, let the snow crystals gather on the cloth or construction paper. Choose an interesting specimen, pick it up gently with the artist's paintbrush, and then carefully place it on the microscope slide. Do not handle microscope slides, as the heat from your hands or breath may damage or melt snowflakes. Carefully put a drop of cold superglue on the crystal. This may require some practice: placing the nozzle of the plastic bottle too close or too far away from the snowflakes will cause damage. Place the cover glass gently (and quickly) on the glue drop. If glue bubbles appear, try tilting the cover glass onto the drop. The glue hardens completely at a slow rate, so keep the slides outside in a sheltered place or in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 days.

After the glue is fully cured, I use cushions and frames to do my best, and pass these preserved snowflakes to family and friends.

Frank Kaczmarek is a photographer and retired biologist, and the author of "New England Wildflowers: A Guide to Common Plants," a falcon field guide published by Globe-Pequot Press in 2009. He lives in Lyman, New Hampshire. Illustration of Adelaide Murphy Tyrol. The external story is appointed and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecological Fund of the New Hampshire Charity Foundation: nhcf.org.

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