![]() Langevin used X-cut plates of quartz to generate and detect sound waves in water. Further developments had to await the invention of the triode vacuum tube.Īfter the Curies the first application of the piezoelectric effect was made by Prof. ![]() Otherwise, for more than three decades the piezoelectric effect remained little more than a laboratory curiosity. Another was the piezoelectrometer which later became the basic instrument used by Pierre and Marie Curie in their work which led to the discovery of Radium. One of these was the piezoelectric voltmeter. Very soon after its discovery, the Curies devised several instruments utilizing the piezoelectric effect. With a few professionals, most of whom knew little more than they about piezoelectricity and with a totally unsatisfactory basis of scientific information, these entrepreneurs tackled a job that would have taxed the ability of the most advanced and best-equipped industrial concern in the nation. On the contrary, they were bartenders, lampshade manufacturers, woodworkers, stone cutters, mechanics and, above all, amateur radio operators or “hams”. It is fitting, therefore, that we should at this time look back upon the development of an industry which, in many respects, is unique an industry staffed for the most part by people who were not trained scientists or engineers. The years 1980-81 are also the centennial of the years in which the Curie brothers discovered the piezoelectric effect the direct effect in 1880 and the converse effect in 1881. The 1939 decision of the Armed Services of the United States to convert its radio equipment to crystal control resulted in the creation of an industry that ultimately played an important role in the victory of the Allied Forces over the Axis Powers. Holton referred even though quartz crystal units were known and in limited use more than a decade before that date. The fortieth anniversary of the entrance of the United States into the great war known as World War II provides an appropriate occasion to review the “incredible progress” to which Dr. Holton’s prophecy concerning the peacetime uses of “those little glass-like wafers” has been fulfilled far beyond anything that he could have foreseen. MacLaurin, in the book INVENTION AND INNOVATION IN THE RADIO INDUSTRY, one of the books in the MIT studies of innovation, published in 1949, does not even mention piezoelectricity or the quartz crystal unit. Holton so prophetically referred has not been told and perhaps can never be told in detail. Gerald James Holton, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. No less significant will be the fruit of these advancements to a new world at peace where crystals will be the vibrating hearts of most telecommunication equipment. When the story of the almost incredible progress in research and manufacture of radio crystals can be told, it will prove to be a tale of one of the war’s greatest achievements. Sirs: In proportion to size these little glass like quartz wafers are perhaps the most remarkable of all the tools science has given to war. ![]() The Augissue of LIFE Magazine carried the following letter to the editor: The record of cooperation among the large and small industries, governmental agencies, the armed services, universities and individual citizens inspires confidence that the most critical problem can be solved with cooperation, dedication and effort. Special emphasis is placed upon the problems which were encountered and overcome in creating an industry capable of meeting the demands of the Armed Services of the United States and their Allies during WW II. The history of the industry is traced from its origin with the discovery of Piezoelectricity by the Curie brothers in 1880-81 to the present time. Although crystal units were in use at least a decade earlier, the beginning of the quartz crystal industry in the USA can logically be dated November 1941 when the Quartz Crystal Section was organized in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. With the aid of many of the people who were involved, this paper is an attempt to record the history of the quartz crystal industry in the USA. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Frequency Control Symposium, pp.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |