Crystal Power CeLL by John Hutchison

[Koen1]

@ AbbaRue:

Sapphire is single crystal al203.  They are not interchangeable with regular aluminum oxide.  Same but very different.  That would be like saying the pure carbon in your grill is diamond.  Totally different properties.  Ruby, is also al203 with a slight contamination of chromium.  All this stuff is related.  Sand is quite different from single crystal quartz crystals.  You may already know this but I wanted to make sure the others understood.

Bill

Yep, you're right. It's all related. Tourmaline, a typical pyroelectric, is also basically a compound of aluminium oxide, silica, and some other elements.

But sand is not necessarily all that different from quartz.

Sand is SiO2 with pollutants, quartz is SiO2, both are crystalline form unlike their cousin chalcedony. But you need to get the right type of sand.
"quartz sand" or "silver sand" is of course more pure and basically are tiny quartz crystals. Quartz powder is used in ceramics and glazing sometimes,
and it is fine white dust. Quartz sand is also very fine and white. They react the same with things like NaOH.
It just depends on what sand you've got. Obviously red sand contains a lot of hematite, black sand often contains a lot of carbon and/or iron again,
etc.
Well I'm sure you know this, but I just wanted to point it out.

[Pirate88179]

Well, what I said was sand is quite different from single crystal quartz, not different from quartz.  The crystal structure is quite different and it has different properties, that's what I meant. And sand or quartz was never used in the technical ceramics we used to deal with.  Dish ware and stuff like that, sure, but the technical ceramics were fired at way too high a temperature for anything other than almost pure al203.

I have seen the term electret used here and there on this topic.  I had no idea what that was so I looked it up. This is fascinating stuff!   It sounds like they use dielectric material, which when treated with heat and polarized, puts out electricy.  I want to learn more about this.

Bill

[Nihilanth]

Has anyone come up with a theory yet as to why some of the ingredients are needed? Or what ways the ingredients interact with each other?
I know germanium is useful as a diode, and so was Galena.

I've been looking into this as much as I can, but I only seem to get Diode+(pyro/photo/piezoelectric)+Pyrite. Am I missing something? 

[Koen1]

@Bill: well, the electret element is quite important in any crystal cell, I think...
That's why all the materials that are and could be used as a base dielectric
are electret materials of a sort. "polarisable dielectric" is a term you could use for
them, and it just so happens many (if not most) of them are also piezo- and/or
pyro- electric, and of course to a degree ferroelectric in molten state.
If you want to know more about the crystal cell dielectric materials, for which
a few guys here now use Rochelle salts, and I still like quartz and sand-based
silicates, it may be worth looking into mr T. townsend Brown's work in
petrovoltaics and his "geolophysical sensor".
Coincidence that John H mentions one of his buddies running off with a
crystal cell of his and making millions pinpointing oil wells by using it
as a geological anomaly detector? I think not. Methinks: simply copying
TT Brown.
anyways, here's a couple of links, and please note the extensive use of
known electret materials in Browns "petrovoltaic cells":
http://www.rexresearch.com/brown4/brown4.htm
http://qualight.com/petro/index.htm#articles

@Nihilanth: Well, yes and no I guess...
The T.T. Brown stuff helps to understand the pyro-/piezo-electric electret material,
as well as the addition of various compounds to enhance internal polarisation.
The diode function is an addition. If proper materials are used, think along the lines
of non-intrinsic semiconductors (semicond compounds), these could be used
instead of non-conductive compounds, thereby maintaining the function of
the polarised compound component but adding possible rectifying characteristics.
Mind you, pyrite is just another semiconductive material that was used in
the old point-contact diodes (cat-whisker crystal detectors) just like galena.
Germanium only works as a diode with the proper p and n dopant and the right
junction zone between them, while galena en pyrite only work when used as
point-contact diodes with the contact on a "sweet spot" on the crystal...
To quote one of the few parts of Wikipedia that still seems to be mostly correct:

"...is simply a relatively primitive and unstable metal?semiconductor point-contact junction forming a Schottky barrier diode. ...The most common crystal used is galena, used without treatment directly as it is mined. Galena with good detecting properties is rare and has no reliable visual characteristics distinguishing it from galena samples with poor detecting properties. ...Because the relatively high temperature of tin-lead solder can damage many crystals, the crystal was often mounted in a low melting point (well under 200 degrees F) metal such as Wood's metal. One surface was left exposed to allow contact with the cat's whisker wire.
Other minerals were also used; significant among them was iron disulfide (pyrite or "fools gold").

So it's pretty clear why JH named those materials...

I find this following quote from that same wiki page very usefull, and I'm quite surprised to see it on wiki to be honest :

Many of the earlier noteworthy mineral detectors did not use the cat's whisker configuration, such as vitreous silicon, silicon carbide (carborundum) and a zincite-bornite rock-to-rock junction.

I think this explains quite nicely why I feel silicate compounds are a good candidate for crystal cells: you don't need to poke around the surface of the
crystalline material to find the "sweet spot" before you can get nice rectification.
But they do tend to be a lot less sensitive than galena and its younger even more sensitive brother germanium...

[Pirate88179]

@ Koen1:

Thanks for the info and the links, I will read them.  I am a little familiar with some of TT Brown's work but not in this area.  Once again, it just shows how much stuff is out there that I don't know.  You would think that the battery people might have had engineers in their R&D department working on things like this.  (Maybe they have and are silent?)  Thanks again.

Bill