Using Crystal for Awards Part 1

So what's so great about using crystal for awards? Aren't crystal awards kind of expensive, old-fashioned and delicate? Well, let's look at that.

First off, people do tend to get bamboozled by the word crystal. It has a meaning - but not the meaning some expect.

The history books say that folks started using the edge of volcanic glass as tools and weapons about 75,000 years ago. But it took another 70,000 years before they were able to make their own glass - the Patent Office was probably on holiday or something.

The problem - really - was that the melting point of glass is pretty high - 3100 degrees F. The Egyptians added ashes and alkali to the silica and reduced the melting point, so they were very early glass makers. The Romans, as usual, took a good thing and improved it - they discovered how to blow glass inside a mold, creating a whole new line of glass consumer products.

Here comes the tricky part. In Renaissance Europe, artisans had been using rock crystal to make chandelier components. But increased costs pushed them to make their components in glass, so the person-made components naturally kept the name "crystal".

An Englishman called Ravenscroft created something he called flint glass by adding lead oxide to glass production, achieving a new level of brilliance, clarity and refractive ability (and a bunch of headaches for OSHA.)

Ravenscroft wrote that he aimed to develop "a particular sort of Christaline Glass resembling Rock Christall". Flint glass came to be known as "lead crystal". But flint glass/lead crystal does not have the crystalline structural properties that lead to us calling rock crystal "rock crystal".

Anyway, rules were set up so that glass with a certain percentage content of lead oxide was allowed to be called "lead crystal" as an indicator of product quality.

Newer technologies from the late 20th century (that was the last one) created glass with the optical quality of the finest "lead crystal" without the use of lead oxide.

Just as the cave folk of 75,000 years ago developed their new technology through an earmarked grant from the Department of Defense, so today optical crystal has come down to us from defense-related research. Optical crystal (or optical glass) is used primarily for eyeglasses and telescopes and other military purposes.

So we could could call optical crystal optical glass - but given the weight given the word "crystal" it doesn't seem fair to deny it to the new medium. Optical crystal is a fabulous material, as it allows spectacular results, it can be finished to a stunning clarity and faceted to high tolerances. The raw material itself is made in blocks, and we cut from the block to extract award shapes. The quality of the material can be seen in the block - no bubbles, no flow marks. And when it is finished its hardness lends itself to sharp facets and perfectly executed angles.

We'll go on to discuss the beauty of using optical crystal for award, paperweight and gift purposes. Stay with me!