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A scientific language for snow
In the early part of the 20th century, a prolific inventor at NRC came up with a scientific language for the many types of snow.
George Klein designed a test kit for measuring the physical and mechanical properties of snow, such as hardness, depth, temperature, and the size and shape of individual grains. The Klein Kit not only facilitated snow research in Canada, but had an influence abroad.
The Inuit language has many words to describe different forms of snow. Traditionally, these words were used for practical purposes, such as communicating the difficulty of walking, sledding or tracking game on snowy terrain.
By the 1930s and 1940s, snow in all its diversity attracted increasing attention among scientists and engineers around the world. ?Partly driven by the technological needs of the transportation, construction and energy development that have combined to open up more of the snow-covered world,? writes Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, ?researchers came to recognize that they needed a common, but finely graded language if they were to share their experiences or learn from their colleagues.?
Some Inuktitut words for snow
katakartanaq: snow with a hard crust that gives way under footsteps
pukak: crystalline snow that breaks down and separates like salt
apigiannagaut: the first snowfall of autumn
kinirtaq: compact, damp snow
mannguq: melting snow
natiruvaaq: drifting snow
qannialaaq: light-falling snow
Source: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Learning Circle (2003)
Enter George J. Klein, a prolific NRC inventor and subject of a 2004 biography by Bourgeois-Doyle. Klein helped to pioneer the world's first snow classification system, which reflects many properties of snow that he explored in his own field studies. A pioneer in the mechanics of snow and ice, Klein began his research out of concerns about the practical problems snow posed for aircraft ski research, construction projects and vehicle design.
?For example, if you're developing new logging equipment, construction materials or vehicles that travel in snow, you want to compare apples to apples,? says Bourgeois-Doyle. ?You need to know that you're testing them under similar conditions so you can make relative judgements about them.?
George Klein began conducting field studies after World War II to fill gaps in Canada's snow research.
In the absence of a common scientific language, Klein developed his own snow classification system, which groups snow, sleet and ice into nine distinct categories. He also designed new instruments for measuring snow, launched the first national snow survey in Canada, and advocated that other countries do the same. His efforts came to fruition when, in 1948, the International Commission on Snow and Ice struck a three-person committee (Klein was a member) that ultimately produced the ?International Classification for Snow.?
?Engineers, geophysicists and hydrologists over the decades will have consciously or unknowingly used the system, or at least the data and discoveries of others who did, to design most of the transportation systems, buildings and consumer products that serve the snow-covered world,? writes Bourgeois-Doyle. ?The original system has been improved and refined over the years, but like most fundamental products of science and technology its impact is pervasive and ever expanding.? 
