Radio Alchemy

Quartz crystal possesses the electrical property known as piezoelectricity. When mechanical pressure is applied to a piezoelectric substance, an electric current is generated. Most significantly, the reverse is also true: when electrical current is applied, the molecular structure of a piezoelectric substance will bend or twist, resulting in mechanical energy. Essentially piezoelectric material acts as a transducer, converting one type of energy to another – the same way in which a loudspeaker transforms electrical signal into the audible pressure waves of sound.

"…The fact that quartz is a transducer in its natural state made it unique among electromechanical transducers of the time. Other transducers, such as carbon microphones, electromagnets, and DC electric motors were and are very much artifacts that require a great deal of human design and fabrication to realize. By contrast, quartz simply requires some cutting and polishing, as well as encasing it such that it can be easily interfaced with other electrical components."[i]

Although quartz is not the only natural (or synthetic) piezoelectric substance, its distinctive toughness, mechanical strength, and thermal properties make an ideal material for a range of electrical applications. Presently nearly every electronic device that requires precise timekeeping or frequency-control depends on the natural resonant properties of quartz oscillators. Fine cut slivers of this substance live in watches, mobile communications, optic communications, computers, phones, and digital hardware interfaces of all kinds. Some have argued that the emergence of crystal-controlled technology “marks the very beginning of the evolution from an analogue to a digital world.”[ii]

Modern quartz crystal oscillators are sold as tiny grey vessels labeled with standardized frequencies, no visible hint to their namesake. Despite these components being referred to as ‘synthetic’ or ‘laboratory-grown’, the quartz contained within is still ultimately sourced from the earth: fragments of raw silicon dioxide called lasca are melted down, seeded, and regrown in highly-controlled conditions to technical specification.[iii]

From the 1920s, many radio stations and HAM operators utilised quartz oscillators to control the frequency of their broadcast. In the 1940s one of the first mobile wireless communication devices was developed, known as a Quartz Crystal Unit. These devices were composed of thin quartz wafers placed between two metal electrodes and subjected to alternating current. Instead of turning a dial to tune the radio as we are accustomed to now, crystals oscillators were physically swapped in and out of circuit according to their specific resonant frequency.

It is the cut, size thickness and axis of each wafer that determines its natural resonance, and thus the receiving or transmitting frequency of the radio unit. Thus each individual crystal had to be meticulously hand-cut to size from a crystal ‘blank’. One can only imagine the care and technique necessary to craft the precise resonant frequency a single quartz wafer.

Like the tuning of a metal antenna by cutting it to a specific length, it seems there’s an alchemistic material influence in the tuning process of these hand-cut rocks. Novalis said that miners may be imagined as “astrologers more or less turned upside down” and when we consider radio, this poetic statement has a sort of accuracy.[iv] It is said that the alignment of stars above influence the destinies of those on earth, but in the case of quartz crystal, it is the precise cut to its resonating frequency that determines the earth’s influence on the sky. Instead of earthly matter aligning with the heavens in an alchemistic sense – the rock is literally cut to transmit through the heavens by virtue of its internal material properties. How odd that reveries of these precious natural objects, many centuries before the discovery of their material energetic potential, allude to the crystal’s energetic influence and connection to the greater environment. Consider these quotes:

"Just as one’s horoscope is cast at the moment one’s form is determined, at birth, the horoscope of a jewel is cast at the moment the gem cutter determines its geometric form. The worker must dream the clarity of the stone and firmament at one and the same time, joining the depths of substance to the sky’s own depths, marrying earthly signature to heavenly signs."[v]

"The great power in precious stones, if they have been cut at the proper hour and season, comes from the heavens… thus they are more lively and vigorous and the countenance of the stars shines forth in them more distinctly."[vi]

It is in underground crystalline rocks that writers and poets throughout the ages have seen the reflection of the stars. In Earth and Reveries of Will Gaston Bachelard reminisces that crystalline rocks have often called forth poetic images of the stars within literature: "Gems are the earth's stars. Stars are the earth's diamonds. There is earth in the firmament and sky on earth."

This proposed artwork seeks to recognise that in the case of quartz (and various other precious stones), rocks taken from the depths of the earth do in fact establish a tangible relationship with the sky and the stars through the advent of radio. In this way the evolution of wireless communication may be read as a sort of technological awakening of earthen objects, as well as a continuation of environmental dreaming.

[i] Christopher Shawn McGahey, Harnessing Nature's Timekeeper: A History of the Piezoelectric Quartz Crystal Technological Community 1880 - 1959 (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009), 32.

[ii] Richard J. Thompson, Crystal Clear: The Struggle for Reliable Communications Technology in World War II (New Jersey: John Wiley, 2007), 4.

[iii] Hennessy, Ken. "Quartz Crystal Basics: From Raw Materials to Oscillators." High Frequency Electronics, December 2007, 54-58, 56.

[iv] Gaston Bachelard, Earth and Reveries of Will: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter  (Dallas: The Dallas Institute Publications, 2002), 223.

[v] Ibid, 230.

[vi] Ibid, 231.

Artwork idea

Inspired by the Quartz Crystal Unit schematics, this project takes raw, imperfect samples of quartz and inserts them into simple, home made AM transmitter and receiver circuits. While lower or impure (noisy) frequencies may result, the work visually foregrounds the rock sample as the driver of this wireless device. The depending on the outcome the signal may manifest as sound, or be read on an oscilloscope.

This work could use Crystal Speakers as potential audio output, or at least sit beside it within an exhibition context.