Have you ever heard the word quartz? May be you see quartz in your clocks or in watches. Did you know what is quartz?
Quartz is a hard crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms. Its chemical formula is SiO2.
Quartz has attracted attention from the earliest times; water-clear Crystal’s were known to the ancient Greeks as krystallos. The name quartz is an old German word of uncertain origin first used by Georgius Agricola in 1530.
Transparent Rock Crystal has many uses; It is used as oscillators in radios, watches and pressure gauges and in the study of optics. QUARTZ is also used as an abrasive for sandblasting, grinding glasses and soft stones.
Quartz in watches and clocks
In 1880 Jacquas and piere curie found that the pressure applied to a quartz crystal creates an electric charge in the crystal, a phenomenon they referred to as the piezoelectric effect.
Inside a quartz clock or watch, the battery sends electricity to the quartz crystal through an electric circuit. The quartz crystal oscillates (vibrates back and forth) at a precise frequency, exactly 32768 times each second.
In 1927, the first quartz clock was built by Warren Marrison and J.W.Horton.
The first quartz watch was the Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ. It was released on 25 December 1969 in Tokyo. Its battery powered movement features a quartz oscillator with a frequency of 8,193Hz, accurate to within five seconds a day.
The invention of clocks and watches using quartz changes the world. It is become a daily part of our life. Charles Darwin says “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
www.atob.in 