Scientific Uses Of Crystals
Pyroelectricy and Piezoelectricity
There are a multitude of ways that crystals can be used to make our lives easier. Many ancient civilizations discovered the practicality of using crystals. From Piezoelectricity: An Introduction To The Theory And Applications Of Electromechanical Phenomena In Crystals (1946)by Walter Guyton Cady, we find that as early as the 6th century B.C. in Greece, an account was given by Thales describing a mysterious attractive power that arose when amber, known to them as electron, was rubbed.
What the ancients were experiencing when they rubbed amber was a type of electrical energy being produced. Pyroelectricity and piezoelectricity are two different types of energy that crystals can produce. The prefixes “pyro” and “piezo” are derived from Greek words meaning “fire” and “to press,” respectively.
The word “pyroelectricity” was first introduced to the world in 1824 by a man named Brewster who studied many different crystals and their attributes. In Crystals And Their Structures (1969) by Arthur P. Cracknell, the definition of pyroelectricity is given as “the development of a spontaneous set of positive and negative charges at opposite ends of a crystal when it is heated.”
In Love Is In the Earth (1995) by Melody, it is written, “the pyroelectric state activates expansion of the inherent energy when the crystal is heated, subsequently, when cooled, the energy contracts and remains within the structure. It has been known for centuries in India and Ceylon that tourmaline, when heated in the embers of a fire, first attracted ashes and then repelled ashes. Other crystals (e.g., topaz) will either attract or repel bits of paper, thread, or ashes. This phenomenon is due to electrical charges which accumulate on the surface of the crystal (i.e., heat producing an evident electrical energy.)”
Another property found in many crystals in called piezoelectricity. From Love Is In The Earth (1995), a definition is given, “piezoelectricity is the quality whereby electricity, and sometimes light, is produced via compression.” From the more scientifically inclined book, Piezoelectricity (1946) by Cady, we have, “piezoelectricity is electric polarization produced by mechanical strain in crystals belonging to certain classes, the polarization being proportional to the strain and changing sign with it.”
The commonality of pyroelectricity and piezoelectricity is that they are both types of electricity, or electric polarity. Their difference lies in how they are produced. Pyroelectricity is produced through a change of temperature and piezoelectricity is produced through pressure.
The electric energy produced by the crystal merges directly with the electromagnetic field that surrounds the human body. In Kevin Sullivan’s The Crystal Handbook (1987), he describes this phenomenon. “Gemstones are believed to affect the body by influencing the etheric web that lies just outside the field of vision. Human bodies are surrounded by an electromagnetic field that is sometimes visible in special pictures known as Kirlian photographs. Gemstones also have their fields of electrical energy that, when worn on the body or carried in close proximity to a person, will affect the body of the person as well.”
Using Electric Properties Of Crystals For Everyday Uses
The discovery of piezoelectricity spurred rigorous research to find out more about its potential, and in the late 1800’s, a German man by the name of Woldemar Voigt produced a book that has since become a mainstay for workers in this field. The book, called Lehrbuch der Kristallphysik, led to further research of the electric phenomenon of crystals. When WW1 was on the verge of beginning, Langevin, a Frenchman, “conceived the idea of exciting quartz plates electronically to serve as emitters, and later also as receivers, of high-frequency sound waves under water…the ‘echo method’ has become a valuable means of locating immersed objects and of exploring the ocean bottom.” (Piezoelectricity 1946).
In Piezoelectricity we find that Langevin, through his study of piezoelectric, became the originator of the now common science and art of ultrasonics. In 1925, a discovery was made by G.W. Pierce, who found that the properties of gases and liquids can be investigated by an acoustic interferometer, which is a device also using piezoelectric principles.
Another important development in the scientific world came in 1918 as a result of further piezoelectric research by the author of Piezoelectricty, Walter Guyton Cady. Cady’s experiments led to the development of the piezoelectric resonator, which can be used as a stabilizer, oscillator, and filter, and for which quartz was soon found to be the most suitable material.
Further information from Piezoelectricity reveals that in radio transmitting stations, resonating crystals are almost universally used, for direct control of frequency in the form of piezo oscillators or indirectly as monitoring devices. The use of crystals in radios is one of their most well-known uses.
Quartz’s strong piezoelectric properties allow it to obtain frequencies much more constantly than is possible by electrical tuning alone. Quartz plates, cut according to special orientations, can help avoid certain disturbing effects on radio such as changing temperature upon frequency.
Quartz clocks are another common everyday item where crystal properties are utilized. According to Walter Guyton Cady in Piezoelectricity (1946), “[In a quartz clock] a vibrating quartz plate or ring replaces the swinging pendulum, resulting in a timepiece more constant than the best astronomical clocks.”
Around the world, crystalline devices have been invented that serve our everyday needs. In Germany and Japan, devices have been invented that measure the explosive pressures and velocities, accelerations, forces, and vibrations of machinery. In the United States, much research was done with quartz and a substance called Rochelle salt, as well as tourmaline, which produced many advances in the field of acoustics. “By the ingenious adaptation of plates from Rochelle-salt crystals, microphones, telephone receivers, phonograph pickups, record cutters, and other devices have been made that are in most respects superior to their electromagnetic predecessors.” (Piezoelectricity 1946).
Thus, one can see how crystals serve a variety of purposes in our human lives. Besides being transmitters of metaphysical healing energy, they also help make our most everyday items, (clocks and radios) function properly.