click to enlarge

Clear quartz (clear rock crystal) is a pure quartz, clear and colorless. Well-formed crystals may reach several meters in length and weigh hundreds of kilograms. These veins may bear precious metals such as gold or silver, and form the quartz ores sought in mining. Quartz is a common constituent of granite, sandstone, limestone, and many other igneous and rocks, that is why it can be found worldwide. The name "quartz" comes from the German QUARZ, which is of Slavic origin (Czech miners called it kremen). Other sources insist the name is from the Saxon word QUERKLUFTERTZ, meaning cross-vein ore. The Irish word for quartz is GRIAN CLOCH, which means "stone of the sun".

click to enlarge

Quartz is the most common material identified as the mystical substance maban in Australian Aboriginal mythology. It is found regularly in passage tomb cemeteries in Europe in a burial context. Clear quartz has been used throughout the centuries to divine the future and commune with spirits, this belief spans many cultures including Western, Chinese, Medieval European and Celtic.

Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder believed quartz to be water ice, permanently frozen after great lengths of time. Another name for clear quartz is clear rock crystal, but the word "crystal" comes from the Greek word for ice. Pliny supported this idea by saying that quartz is found near glaciers in the Alps, but not on volcanic mountains, and that large quartz crystals were fashioned into spheres to cool the hands. He also knew of the ability of quartz to split light into a spectrum. This idea persisted until at least the 1600s.

Nicolas Steno's study of quartz paved the way for modern crystallography. Charles Sawyer invented the commercial quartz crystal manufacturing process in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. This initiated the transition from mined and cut quartz for electrical appliances to manufactured quartz.