Abstract
THE recent letters in NATURE from Lieut.-Comdr. Damant and Sir E. Ray Lankester recall some observations made in 1916 in collaboration with my friend and former headmaster, the late Mr. W. P. Workman, who first directed my attention to this interesting phenomenon. Specimens of translucent quartz from a quarry about three miles from Tintagel, North Cornwall, give the characteristic orange-coloured light in broad daylight and the peculiar smell. This triboluminescence of quartz was observed by Du Fay in 1735, and about 1748 Delius mentioned the sulphurous smell which accompanies the glow when quartz is rubbed against quartz (Kayser, Bd. iv., pp. 614, 617; Winkelmann, Bd. vi., p. 809).
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ALLEN, H. Luminosity by Attrition. Nature 106, 376 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106376c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106376c0
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