The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1921-12-03
VIEW or
NATURES HANDIWORK
w. A. Bentley Gave Interesting Illus
trated Talk on Frost
Formations.

"There are two things in Gods uni
verse that attract the greatest of at
tention--the infinitely great and the
infinitely small" said Prof. w. A.
Bentley last night at the Hedding
church in his illustrated lecture on the
beauties and structure Of rain, dew,
frost, and snownakes, presented to an
interested audience of about three hsn-
dred people. Mr.. Bentley treated the
small.
Introductory to the scenes and pho
tographs which followed he gave the
story of the formation Of the frost,
dew and snow particles, telling in a
simple, straightforward manner how
all water particles. whether of rain or
snow, were formed of microscopic wa
ter-molecules, how each small water
molecule was kept in continual motion
by the rays Of the sun, and how at the
setting of the sun at night the small
molecules stopped their terrific action
and settled onto the grass blades,
leaves, and other vegetation.
The slides which were introduced in
the lecture showed the peculiar forms
of snowflakes. frost flakes, dew drops
and also different cloud formations.
The display of designs in window-frost
formations was especially interesting
Citizens of northern states, and espe-
cially Vermonters, know what II is to
look some cold morning onto the FROST
ed window and see there arrayed the
forest. the city, the fiower-bed or Gre
clan statuary of fairy books, toned
and shaded by the brittle fakes of
Jack Frost; but to the normal eve all
the variations Of these designs are
not apparent. and cannot be appreci-
ated except by the use of magnified
photographs. A score or more of these
window decorations were flashed upon
the screen. and their individual story
told by Mr.. Bentley
The collection o. different s-rowaakes,
nearly all of which were captured
alive" in his own part Of the state,
Jericho. was exceptionally complete.
The different forms of flakes, some in |
the form of stars, some round, some |
angular, and Others with no conven
tional form, were separately comment
ed on.
Mr.. Bentley said that these different |
forms often predominated in separate
storms, a triangular shape, for in
stance, being the general shape of
nearly all the flakes which would fall /
in the course of one storm. The ex-
phantom for the innumerable forms,
Mr.. Bentley said, was very simple. the
flakes originally being small round
which grew out roughly on
the edges and assumed whatever shape
It fell into. The delicacy of these
flakes, and the intricacv of many OF
their forms. was food for wonderment
and thought, all the more so because
The we'll developed picture and CAREFUL
" kept slides showed out to its best
advantage each particular
Landscape scenes were introduced
now and then, most of which were
,now -garbed. Among these Mr.. Bent
ey showed picture of his own home
n Jericho, The room where the expert
nents had been carried on, and the
'amera which was used in making the
,rints.
His method of procedure in taking
he photographs involved great agility ]
nd accuracy, Mr.. Bentley said, for
ven with the temperature down to !
ero a flake would last only min
tie or two, or often only few Sec
nds, before mclting "It would seem !
comedy TO some," he said before the /
scture. "to see me look for second
through the piroscope then turn my i
cad away and exhale my breath" !
,uring storm. flakes which had prom |
,e of being unusual were collected on
slate slab and separate flakes then c
licked up with small steel pen and v
lid on glass. where they we're il
ressed out fatty to make them more t
acisive in outline. The plate was then c
laced before the machine and the t
photograph taken Zeal and enthusi
SIN for his work could be easily seen {
hen Mr.. Bentley stated that often s.
2 went without breakfast and dinner, St
nd often stayed in a room whose ther- 4
ometer registered nothing, TO procure z
a unusual specimen. d
Professor Bentley has been at the A
ork about thirty-six years, and has G
-obably a larger collection of data on il
lie subject than any other American. p
is efforts have been recognized sew Il
al times. Pearson's, England's larg- al
I magazine. recently published an ar al
rle about the work, as have also
any of the larger American journals. b.
= prints. which he makes continually. d,
I'VE been sent to all the different
rts of the world for study, some Of G.
em even reachiuC China IA