On 07/04/2005 8:50 AM, Al wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
We dropped molten solder in a pile of sulpher in a bottle cap.
On 5 Apr 2005 20:45:34 -0500, wrote:
When I was in high school (many MANY years ago), a classmate of mine
"grew" his own crystal by melting (IIRC) lead and sulfur together.
It was an ugly-looking mess, but it worked.
You were making "galena" which is PbS, Lead Sulfide. I used one for my
first crystal radio in the 50's. Had to find a sensitive spot. You might
be able to find some in a hobby shop (If you can find one.) that deals
with minerals.
You might also try a "blue blade" razor blade. The GIs used them in WWII
for making foxhole radios. The bluing produced a chemical (unknown to
me) that rectified the signal.
For this purpose, almost any anodized metal should suffice. The "Blue
Blades" were,
AFAIK, simply anodized and polished high-carbon steel.
The aonodized surface would be covered with fine steel-oxide crystals.
I wonder if anodized aluminium would work? I'm theorizing here that we
want some sort of crystal to interact with a base conductor.
This kind of thing is still done for some special "blue" hack- and
reciprocating saw blades. I think there are even circular saw blades
that are anodized in a similar way. These would be expensive and hard
to come by. I'm sure people will pay to get them rebuilt rather than
toss them out, and I have no idea how an average tinkerer might easily
cut pieces of a think saw blade up!
However, if you can find a hacksaw blade treated in the same manner,
this give supplies for a number of experiments.