1) "A Story of Quartz" is a Cinesound Review newsreel made by Cinesound 
Productions for the Department of Information, Commonwealth of Australia, 
probably not long after 1945. Go to 
http://youtu.be/b_MUBbLRy9g

The presence of quartz crystals in one of the dumps of an old gold mine, known 
as Black Charlie's mine, in the Strathbogie Ranges (at Tallangalook, near 
Mansfield, Victoria) led to the re-opening of part of the workings in the 
search for crystal suitable for piezo-electric applications in radio receivers 
and transmitters during World War II. It was then re-named the Crystal King 
mine.

The project was conducted by a syndicate of five members, two of whom (Bob 
Terry and Ed Hughes) were engaged in mining the crystal deposits. Another 
member of the syndicate, Jack Willey prepared the finished piezo-electric 
plates from the recovered crystal at the premises of Quartz Crystal Laboratory 
(a subsidiary of John Browning Pty Ltd, a firm of opticians) in Melbourne, 
Victoria. A 1945 government geological report on the Crystal King mine can be 
found at http://www.ga.gov.au/metadata-gateway.... 



2) The "Crystal Clear" short video was made one month before the 1985 Telecom 
Research Laboratories (TRL) Open Day.  Go to http://youtu.be/_DKtt1H2TxM

The video was made at Telecom Video Productions (TVP), then located in 
Kingsway, Melbourne by David Sutton, David Battle and with Cyril Jones as 
narrator/producer/director.  It comprises segments taken (in sequence) from 
'Unedited Mine Shots' filmed at Woods Point, Victoria, from a Cinesound Review 
newsreel titled "A Story of Quartz" about the Crystal King mine in the 
Strathbogie Range, near Mansfield, Victoria and mainly at the Telecom Research 
Laboratories quartz crystal workshop, then located at Clayton, Melbourne.  

The piezo-electric property of properly engineered quartz crystals enables them 
to provide fixed frequency oscillation so essential in radio transmitters, 
receivers, digital watches and many items of scientific equipment.  The Telecom 
Research Laboratories were probably undertaking this work to support the 
National Time & Frequency Standard.

Cheers

Ross Kelso
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

Reply via email to