FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Matt_Zukowski]

This link takes you to a video that shows how quartz xtals were made ready for use in crystal oscillators during the WWII period. The beginning of the video should be of most interest to mineral enthusiasts because it shows how raw xtals are aligned to obtain the proper piezoelectric effect. But the video does go on for perhaps too long as each step in the process is shown. (If you like the show “How it’s Made,” you might enjoy watching the whole thing.) Also of interest to some is the fact that most of the labor was female, as it was during the war years, and health & safety standards are way below those of today.




The video has a little extra interest to me because I was licensed as an amateur (ham) radio operator when I was something like 10 or 11 years old. This is long enough ago that I plugged xtals into the front of my first transmitter to determine transmitting frequency. Back then crystals were abbreviated “xtals,” and I still use this abbreviation as you can see. I have recently become relicensed, and my watching of various ham radio things on youtube, along with other sciency-things, is what probably made Mr. Youtube recommend this video for me.

[Pierre Joubert]

Hi Matt. I enjoyed watching this video. No wonder they said that the quartz wafers where more valuable than gold.