Hobbies And Interests
Glass
The most common use for white quartz is in the manufacture of glass. One form of glass is fused quartz, which is melted quartz that has solidified. This type of glass is not very common because of the high temperature required in its manufacture. More common is glass that has been made from a mixture of quartz in the form of sand, sodium carbonate, which lowers the changeover temperature, and the oxides of calcium, magnesium and aluminum, which cause the glass to be more resilient. Special fire proof glasses such as Pyrex are manufactured by adding boron oxide, which makes the glass resilient to temperature changes.
Piezoelectricity
Any white quartz crystal has a property known as piezoelectricity. When mechanical stress is applied to a quartz crystal it causes the crystal to oscillate electromagnetically. This property was first discovered in 1880 by Jacques and Pierre Curie, and was made use of in the manufacture of the first radio and radar sets. In more recent years the property has been used in wrist watches, clocks, mobile phones and computers. Quartz is widely used in the manufacture of microchips and transistors. The piezoelectric property of quartz is also used in the quartz crystal microbalance.
Abrasives
Compared with many other substances, white quartz is relatively hard, being seven on the Mohs scale compared with 10 for the diamond. This quality makes quartz an excellent abrasive material, and it is the most common material used in the manufacture of sandpaper. Quartz in the form of fine sand is used as the medium for sandblasting, as a scouring cleanser and as a grinding medium. There is a tendency to move away from quartz as it can be the cause of silicosis.
As a Healing Agent
There is plenty of research going on into the further uses of crystals. A good example of this is the recent invention of an "invisibility cloak" -- something straight out of science fiction. Researchers in Britain and Denmark have recently published their findings in which a 1-inch-size, three-dimensional object was successfully made invisible by the use of a natural calcite crystal. Single crystals can be placed on specific points of the body called chakras in order to restore balance in associated organs. Acupuncture needles that are coated with quartz are 10 percent more effective than those without.