BCP 101 EL: v6 (First Timers)

HISTORY OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: Marie Curie’s husband, Charlie and his older brother, Fredrick, were the first to demonstrate piezoelectricity.  

HISTORY OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: The Curie brothers would take a slab of quartz and put it in-between two copper plates. With a wooden lever, they would press the quartz with the weight of iron in their apparatus. To their amazement, they found that electricity was given off by the quartz when it was compressed. This electricity is  called piezoelectricity. Piezo means “press” in Greek.

HISTORY OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: The brothers experimented with many other kinds of crystals including tourmaline, topaz, and even salt and sugar. They surprisingly discovered that different crystals gave off the same amounts of electricity as the crystals deformed. 

HISTORY OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: The crystals didn’t have to be squeezed much; only one inch of a squeeze was enough to produce electricity. 

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: Sonograms and sonar produce their pulses for their images from pulsating piezoelectricity. 

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: Lighters for barbecues use piezo electricity–electricity generated by the squeezing of a crystal in the lighter.  

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: Piezoelectric crystals drive the ejection of air to dry the ink in inkjet printers.

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: In 2013, Kyocera corporation in Japan introduced their revolutionary six-inch thick, seventy-pound speaker for their 55” television.

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: One company has made piezoelectric devices that cars drive over. These plate devices generate enough electricity to power nearby streetlights, billboards and signs.

USES OF PIEZOELECTRICITY: Goodyear scientists have invented a seat cover that generates electricity as the diver sits down to drive the car because the weight of the person squashing the seat cover can be used to press piezoelectric crystals!