I have come a long way from where they are known as vitreon crystals, from the Latin root word of vitron, meaning glass.

Silicon dioxide crystals are known as quartz here.

Thus one problem is solved in making a new Shift Engine.

I see their piezoelectric properties have been well-known for over a hundred years.

Interesting how they are sliced thin to make transducers that produce a tiny physical movement when hit with a high voltage pulse of electricity.

Yet the field a large crystal produces when pulsed seems unexplored here. This field is at the heart of the Shift Engine.