An Uncompahgre Ute (Native Indian) Buffalo rawhide ceremonial rattle filled with quartz crystals.
Flashes of light are visible when the quartz crystals are subjected to mechanical stress in darkness. a.k.a. Shaking ..
The word for producing light in this way is called Mechanoluminescence
I copied and pasted that word lol, but yea these Native Indians knew about this phenomena ..
Apparently passed down from the Aztecs and that itself goes back into South america Incas, Nazcas etc..
in 1620ad Francis Bacon had observed that when sugar is crushed in the dark it produces light .. I’ve seen this demonstrated ..
In France it was observed that a barometer (the glass tube) with mercury inside .. would make the tube glow (the space above the mercury).
This led to the invention of the Light bulb.
Now think of this.. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was totally covered in slabs of Quartz (the most common mineral on earth lol), so whats the bet that the pyramid glowed?
Massive sheets of Mica were removed from the great pyramid and Mica is used in electrical insulation, as if the pyramid could of been a power station of sorts using crystal energy ( Crystal give off and store energy, this is a proven fact)
Triboluminescence – is an optical phenomenon in which light is generated through the breaking of chemical bonds in a material when it is pulled apart, ripped, scratched, crushed, or rubbed
A diamond when rubbed can appaear to glow, esp when its being cut.
Crushing a sugar cube produces light Which can be observed in the dark
Even cellotape (scotch type, common) produces light when you pull a bit off the roll.
Its not even fully understood today.
I find this fascinating ..
Quartz crystals produce light (almost electrical), which they call ionisation or Plasma..
Quartz is the most common mineral on earth and plasma is the most common fundamental state of matter (solid, gas, liquid and plasma)
Yet this is not fully understood. Please check this out
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_Tribe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboluminescence#Fractoluminescence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanoluminescence
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_7.htm – Explains about Mica in the great pyramids of Egypt and South america
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYn0Qrgk4nU – Simple video showing how light is produced from quartz crystals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2KpSCNOA3U – Light from crushing sugar.. basically you could make light from candy Rock..