Plate XIX of "Studies among the
Snow Crystals ... " by
Wilson Bentley (1902), the first person known to photograph snowflakes. He did so by catching an individual snowflake on a blackboard, rushing it onto some black velvet, which he would then photograph using a
bellows camera he had attached to a
microscope. His first photograph of a snowflake was on January 15, 1885 and he would capture over 5000 images of crystals in his lifetime. 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.
Photo credit: Wilson Bentley