The

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...

, a

crystalline A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

formation of

ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

, has intrigued people throughout history. This is a

chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. I ...

of interest and research into snowflakes. Artists, philosophers, and scientists have wondered at their shape, recorded them by hand or in photographs, and attempted to recreate hexagonal snowflakes. Wilson Alwyn Bentley (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931), also known as Snowflake Bentley, was an American meteorologist and photographer, who was the first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes and record their features. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated.

Chronological list

BC to 1900

* or - Han Ying ( 韓嬰) compiled the anthology '' Han shi waizhuan'', which includes a passage that contrasts the pentagonal symmetry of flowers with the hexagonal symmetry of snow. This is discussed further in the ''

Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era The ''Taiping Yulan'', translated as the ''Imperial Reader'' or ''Readings of the Taiping Era'', is a massive Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia compiled by a team of scholars from 977 to 983. It was commissioned by the imperial court of the Son ...

''. * 1250 -

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his li ...

offers what is believed to be the oldest detailed description of snow. * 1555 -

Olaus Magnus Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic. Biography Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder ...

publishes the earliest snowflake diagrams in ''

Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus ''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus'' was a monumental work by Olaus Magnus on the Nordic countries, printed in Rome 1555. It was a work which long remained for the rest of Europe the authority on Swedish matters. Its popularity increase ...

''. * 1611 - Johannes Kepler, in ''Strenaseu De Nive Sexangula'', attempts to explain why snow crystals are hexagonal. * 1637 -

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...

' ''

Discourse on the Method ''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' (french: Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences) is a philosophical and autobiographical ...

'' includes hexagonal diagrams and a study for the crystallization process and conditions for snowflakes. * 1660 -

Erasmus Bartholinus Rasmus Bartholin (; Latinized: ''Erasmus Bartholinus''; 13 August 1625 – 4 November 1698) was a Danish physician and grammarian. Biography Bartholin was born in Roskilde. He was the son of Caspar Bartholin the Elder (1585–1629) and Anna ...

, in his ''De figura nivis dissertatio'', includes sketches of snow crystals. * 1665 - Robert Hooke observes snow crystals under magnification in ''

Micrographia ''Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon.'' is a historically significant book by Robert Hooke about his observations through various lenses. It ...

''. * 1675 -

Friedrich Martens Friedrich Fromhold Martens, or Friedrich Fromhold von Martens,, french: Frédéric Frommhold (de) Martens ( – ) was a diplomat and jurist in service of the Russian Empire who made important contributions to the science of international law. H ...

, a German physician, catalogues 24 types of snow crystal. * 1681 - Donato Rossetti categorizes snow crystals in ''La figura della neve''. * 1778 - Dutch

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Johannes Florentius Martinet diagrams precise sketches of snow crystals. * 1796 -

Shiba Kōkan , born Andō Kichirō (安藤吉次郎) or Katsusaburō (勝三郎), was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo period, famous both for his Western-style '' yōga'' paintings, in imitation of Dutch oil painting styles, methods, and themes ...

publishes sketches of ice crystals under a

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

. * 1820 -

William Scoresby William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Early years Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, William ...

's ''An account of the Arteic Regions'' includes snow crystals by type. * 1832 - Doi Toshitsura describes and diagrams 86 types of snowflake ( 雪華図説). * 1837 - publishes '' Hokuetsu Seppu''. * 1840 - Doi Toshitsura expands his categories to include 97 types. * 1855 -

James Glaisher James Glaisher FRS (7 April 1809 – 7 February 1903) was an English meteorologist, aeronaut and astronomer. Biography Born in Rotherhithe, the son of a London watchmaker, Glaisher was a junior assistant at the Cambridge Observatory from ...

publishes detailed sketches of snow crystals under a microscope. * 1865 - Frances E. Chickering publishes ''Cloud Crystals - a Snow-Flake Album''. * 1870 -

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (18 November 183212 August 1901) was a Finland-Swedish aristocrat, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer. He was a member of the Fenno-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists and held the title of a friher ...

identifies " cryoconite holes." * 1872 - John Tyndall publishes ''The Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers''. * 1891 - Friedrich Umlauft publishes ''Das Luftmeer''. * 1893 - Richard Neuhauss photographs a snowflake under a microscope, titled ''Schneekrystalle''. * 1894 - A. A. Sigson photographs snowflakes under a microscope.

1901 to 2000

* 1901 -

Wilson Bentley Wilson Alwyn Bentley (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931), also known as Snowflake Bentley, was an American meteorologist and photographer, who was the first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes and record their featu ...

publishes a series of photographs of individual snowflakes in the ''

Monthly Weather Review The ''Monthly Weather Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers research related to analysis and prediction of observed and modeled circulations of the atmosphere, including techniq ...

''. * 1903 -

Svante Arrhenius Svante August Arrhenius ( , ; 19 February 1859 – 2 October 1927) was a Swedish scientist. Originally a physicist, but often referred to as a chemist, Arrhenius was one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. He received the Nob ...

describes crystallization process in ''Lehrbuch der Kosmischen Physik''. * 1904 - Helge von Koch discover the

fractal curve A fractal curve is, loosely, a mathematical curve whose shape retains the same general pattern of irregularity, regardless of how high it is magnified, that is, its graph takes the form of a fractal. In general, fractal curves are nowhere rectif ...

s to be a mathematical description of snowflakes. * 1931 -

and William Jackson Humphreys publish ''Snow Crystals'' * 1936 -

Ukichiro Nakaya was a Japanese physicist and science essayist known for his work in glaciology and low-temperature sciences. He is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes. Life and research Nakaya was born near the Katayamazu hot springs in Kag ...

creates snow crystals and charts the relationship between temperature and

water vapor (99.9839 °C) , - , Boiling point , , - , specific gas constant , 461.5 J/( kg·K) , - , Heat of vaporization , 2.27 MJ/kg , - , Heat capacity , 1.864 kJ/(kg·K) Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous p ...

saturation Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to: Chemistry * Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds **Saturated and unsaturated compounds ** Degree of unsaturation **Saturated fat or fatty aci ...

, later called the ''Nakaya Diagram''. * 1938 - Ukichiro Nakaya publishes * 1949 - Ukichiro Nakaya publishes * 1952 - Marcel R. de Quervain '' et al.'' define ten major types of snow crystals, including hail and graupel in

IUGG The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG; french: Union géodésique et géophysique internationale, UGGI) is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the scientific study of Earth and its space environment us ...

for the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. * 1954 - Harvard University Press publishes Ukichiro Nakaya's ''Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial''. * 1960 - , verifies and improves the ''Nakaya Diagram'' with the ''Kobayashi Diagram''. * 1962 - describes meteorological sorting of snow crystal types in

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

s. *1979 - and Rolf Lacmann, of the

Braunschweig University of Technology Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

, publish ''Growth Mechanism of Ice from Vapour Phase and its Growth Forms''. * 1983 August - Astronauts make snow crystals in

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

on the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' during

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

STS-8 STS-8 was the eighth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It launched on August 30, 1983, and landed on September 5, 1983, conducting the first night launch and night landing of the Space Shuttl ...

. * 1988 - et al. make artificial snow crystals in an

updraft In meteorology, an updraft is a small-scale current of rising air, often within a cloud. Overview Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding regi ...

, confirming the ''Nakaya Diagram''.

2001 and after

* 2002 - devises a simple snow crystal growth observatory apparatus using a

PET bottle Although PET is used in several applications, (principally textile fibres for apparel and upholstery, bottles and other rigid packaging, flexible packaging and electrical and electronic goods), as of 2022 only bottles are collected at a substa ...

cooled by

dry ice Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used for temporary refrigeration as CO2 does not have a liquid state at normal atmospheric pressure and sublimates directly from the solid state to the gas state. It is used primarily ...

in an expanded polystyrene box. * 2004 September - invented the apparatus named lit. ''Murai-method Artificial Snow Crystal producer'' (Murai式人工雪結晶生成装置) which makes various shape of artificial snow crystals per pre-setting conditions meeting to ''Nakaya diagram'' by vapor generator and its cooling

Peltier effect The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

element. * 2008 December - demonstrates conditional snow crystal growth in

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

, in ''Solution Crystallization Observation Facility (SCOF)'' on the JEM (Kibō), remotely controlled from Tsukuba Space Center of JAXA.Approximately 100 times of experiments till March 2009, outcome would be good hint for ultra-pure

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...

crystallizing,

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

2 Dec. 2008 Evening edition page 14

Notes and references

Sources cited

* * * *

External links

The history of the science of snowflakes
(3 times fast replay) (in Japanese)
SnowCrystals.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline of snowflake research Snow Science experiments Snowflake Research