[Milsurplus] Last crystal comment

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

Ok so you *need* natural quartz to grow synthetic quartz. The further your seed gets from natural, the
more the result degrades. That does not translate to an enormous demand, but there is a point you can’t 
go past. 

Indeed the USSR also had a “stockpile” mentality. In their case the quartz stockpile was measured in 
mountains rather than trivial units like tons. They had mines running full time piling up “reserves” for many
decades. 

The fiber optic industry is by far a bigger user of quartz (fused quartz, but the same chemical compound) 
than the crystal industry ever was. Even with their explosive growth over the last three decades, they are
having a hard time working through the various piles lying around the ex-USSR.

Bob

> On Jan 6, 2020, at 9:07 PM, Richard Brunner <brunneraa1p at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Nothing would surprise me either.  Further, quartz has been "grown" in the laboratory for the last 50 or 60 years which provides good quality control.  I expect a significant portion of quartz from the wild was unsuitable for various reasons.  There may be a case for stockpiling  mica.
> 
> Richard, AA1P
> 
> On 1/6/2020 8:50 PM, CL in NC via Milsurplus wrote:
>> When Reagan was Prez. he went about cleaning house a bit and stopping things that needed stopping, sort of a real time answer to  Sen. Proxmire's, 'Golden Fleece Award'.    Up until that time, the US was still buying and stock piling radio grade quartz, plus mica, used in various components of the day, apparently more than any other time.  All this because we had a shortage of it in 'The Great War'.  Wonder who bought all the quartz  at auction?  Hope they didn't just bury it.  Or maybe it is still in the warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant and the Roswell aliens.  The last comment only makes sense if you watched all the Indiana Jones movies.
>> 
>> Charlie, W4MEC in NC
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