Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-03
SNOW CRYSTALS.
How These Wonderful Shapes are
 Formed.

1 Formed
 l The wonderfully beautiful and in- 1 tricate designs of snow crystals have 1 long excited admiration. Various stu l dents have made detailed investiga- tions of their extraordinary form and | have published drawings of what l4ey
 look like when magnified, but the 1 most remarkable collection of actual l photographs of these crystals tech- ! nically, photomicrographs) is in the 1 possession of Wilson A. Bentley of Jericho, Vt. MT Bentley has been making 8 special study of snow srys,
 tals during twenty years. He has photographed many hundreds of them. and has now in his collection more than 1000 photographs and no two are alike,
 The forms vary according to the wind, the height of the clouds, the de- gree of cold, the amount of water in the air, etc. Crystals formed in cold weather or high clouds are usually columnar.
 Those formed in moderate weather and light winds or in low clouds are are apt to have frail branches and to be of feathery type; mixed forms grow partly in low aud partly in high clouds. High winds give broken and irregular forms, and much moisture the very granular crystals.
 Heavy granular covered crystals are peculiarly product of the lower or Intermediate cloud strata, and espe- cially Of moist snow storms In in tense cold they are rare, while the col umnar and solid tubular then become common. t..z.
 About four-fifths of the perfect forms occur within the west and north quadrants of great storms.
 The most common forms outlined within the nuclear or central portions of the crystals are a simple star of six rays. solid hexagon and circle. The subsequent additions assume beWll- dering variety Of shapes. each of which usually differs widely from the primitive nuclear form Iat it's center. By bearing in mind the fact that crys- tals evolved within the. upper clouds tend toward solidity and the crystals formed in the lower clouds tend to- ward open branches and feathery forms, it is possible to trace the his tory and travels of a great many or the crystals.
 The beautiful details. the lines. rods. fowery geometrical traclngs and dell cate symetrfcally arranged shadings to be found within the interior DOT tions of most of the more compact tab- ular crystals, and in less degree with in the more open ones. are due to minute inclusious of air. This in cluded air prevents a complete join ing of the water molecules; the w2lls of the resultant air tubes cause |the absorption and refraction of Il part oI the rays of light entering the crystal; hence those portions appear darker by transmitted light than do the other portions. The softer and broad CT interior shadings may perhaps also be due ill whole or ill part, to the same cause. but if so. the corresponding in clusions of air must necessarily be more attenuated and more widely diff fused than in the former cases. We can only conjecture as to the manner in which these minute air tubes and blisters are formed. AS no one can ever actually see the extremely mi, mute water particles rush together and form themselves into snow crystals, the material and the manner in which the molecules Of water are joined to form the snow crystals is largely matter of speculation. While it is true that the snow crystals form within the clouds, it does not therefore fol, low that they are formed from the coarse particles of which the clouds are composed ill cold weather. we have good grounds for assuming that the true snow crystals are formed di- rectly from the minute invisible atoms or molecudes of water in the air, and not from the coarse particles in the clouds, as it is unlikely that these coarse particles could unite in snow crystals in so perfect manner as to leave no trace of their union even when examined under a powerful mi croscope. Geographic Maga- zine.