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9.) It has extraordinary qualities of pitch, giving absolute and un- changeable standards. A tuning fork of it vibrates several minutes, giving out a note which does not change with temperature or other conditions. The fused quartz is manufactured from a fine quality of rock crystals from Brazil and Madagascar, but can be made in unlimited quantities in almost any part of the world. It can already be produced commercially at a fraction of the price of the fused quartz formerly made by hand, in minute quantities, at great expense. The quartz is made in specially constructed, vat-like, electric furnaces operating at times in a vacuum, and at other times under a pressure of 1,100 to 3,000 pounds of nitrogen to the square inch, or more than a million pounds on the top of the furnace. If the pressure were unloosed it would have the effect of a high-explosive bomb. The quartz is forced downward through the crucible' by a weight, and cut into tubes as it emerges. The product is to the eye a beautifully fine, clear, color- less substance.
The chief credit for the discovery goes to Edward R. Berry, Assistant Director of the Thomson Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company, who has worked at the problem for nearly ten years, in the face of great discouragements. He was constantly stimulated, however, by Elihu Thomson, the great engineer-founder of the Company (TIME, Feb. 25), who foresaw the modern developments of quartz research.
Scientists the world over are impressed by the potentialities of the quartz fusion process. Albert Einstein, interviewed in Berlin, was interested in its applications to his theory of the curvature of light, paid high tribute to the activity, courage, and idealism of American scientists.