Hobbies And Interests
Jewelry
Jewelers use tourmaline, considered a semi-precious stone, in making bracelets, rings, necklaces and pendants. Tourmaline also functions as an alternative birthstone for October. This function was created in 1952.
Technology: Pressure Gauging
Due to its piezoelectricity, scientists find tourmaline useful in devices for measuring pressure as well as changes in pressure. Specifically it is used in such things as gauges for detecting temporary pressures produced by blasts and devices for depth sounding.
Technology: Polarization Device
Tourmaline's dichroism makes it useful for polarizing light: when two slices of tourmaline are cut the right way, along certain axes, or lines of symmetry, and one is held in front of the other, light is blocked.
This fact gives tourmaline a useful function: People use two tourmaline slices as a polarizing device known as tourmaline tongs.
Historical Use: Pipe Cleaner
When exportation of tourmalines from Sri Lanka began in the 1700s, Dutch traders discovered tourmaline's piezoelectricity. They utilized this property to remove the ashes from their pipes, and called tourmalines aschentrekkers, in English "ash movers".
New Age Usages
Within the New Age movement, gemstones, both precious and semi-precious, are seen as having certain magical properties, whose uses range from fixing issues that range from the emotional, spiritual and physical, to increasing desirable emotional and spiritual aspects. A practice within New Age ideologies, crystal healing, uses these attributed properties as a medical practice.