Snowflake Collector

Vincent Schaefer had a rather unusual hobby. He collected snowflakes. In order to do so, he invented (around 1941) a way of making plastic casts of snowflakes, by sitting outside on winter nights while it was snowing, and then dropping the flakes onto a thin film of formvar, which was a kind of plastic resin.

Schaefer also later invented the technique of cloud seeding. And he did all this with hardly any formal education, never having graduated from high school. Definitely an interesting character.

Who We Are
Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2013
Category: Collectors

Comments

Have you ever notice that, down through the years the people who thought outside the box were never taught that a box existed?

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 10/08/13 at 10:46 AM

There's a thought Expat.

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 10/08/13 at 02:43 PM

I recall an article in National Geographic from the late '60's where the author performed the same capture and display of snowflakes. This is applied science at its best.

Posted by KDP on 10/09/13 at 09:54 AM

And don't forget Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley who took 5000 pictures and published a book in 1931.
http://snowflakebentley.com/bio.htm

Posted by B.J. Herbison on 10/10/13 at 03:30 AM

Nice Arts 😊

Posted by LiquidPrinter on 10/12/13 at 05:58 AM

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