Quartz Clocks

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Quartz Clocks

• By Alison Moser

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A Brief History

• First developed in 1927 by telecommunications
  engineer, Warren Marrison
• In the 1940s, time standard laboratories
  throughout the globe switched to quartz
• By the 1960s, quartz crystal oscillators had
  greatly replaced tuning-fork mechanisms in clocks
• Research and advancements in defense and
  aerospace technology during the Cold War allowed
  for the miniturization of the electric circuitry
  of quartz clocks (the birth of quartz watches)

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Notable Inventors
Involved with the Development of the Modern
Quartz Clock

• Pierre Curie
• Walter Guyton Cady
• Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
• John Bergey
• James Fergason
• Nunzio Luce
• Juergen Staudte

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Properties of Quartz Crystals

• Quartz generates an electrical charge when
  pressure is applied, as well as the reverse
• due to their elastic qualities, mechanical
  strength and durability, quartz crystals can be
  used to fabricate very stable resonators
• They can be cut in specific ways that create
  resonators of almost any frequency that are
  practically independent of temperature variations
• The quartz crystals inside watches today come in
  various shapes and frequencies.

these are quartz crystals youre seeing
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Mechanics of a Quartz Crystal Oscillator

• Battery
• Electrical field
• Quartz crystal
• Oscillations
• Conversion
• Reduction
• Quartz Clock

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Integrated Circuit

• The IC is a silicon chip that controls all of the
  functions of a quartz clock.
• Modern integrated circuits can do more than just
  make a quartz crystal oscillate, convert a
  frequency, and drive a display todays quartz
  watched are more like dedicated microcomputers.

Eg. The Casio Calculator Watch
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Time Displays on Quartz Watches

• The first quartz watches used analog time
  displays, using a stepping motor to drive the
  hands of the dial.
• In 1970 the Hamilton Pulsar became the first
  watch with a digital display, using light
  emitting diode technology this led people to
  claim that LED was bigger than Jesus.
• Further research led to the development of LCD,
  which quickly replaced LED.
• In the mid-1980s, there was a resurgence in
  analog display popularity.

Yeah, but whos got the world religion?
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Advantages to Quartz Clocks

• Quartz clocks are easy to use they are electric,
  so they do not require regular winding.
• Quartz clocks are inexpensive greater innovation
  and technology in the field of quartz clocks has
  greatly improved, reducing the price of the
  clocks for the consumer.
• Quartz clocks make you look cool according to
  the Young Students Learning Librarys article on
  clocks and watches, quartz clocks and watches are
  the most popular of all clocks and watches.

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Inaccuracy in Quartz Clocks

• Quartz clocks are inaccurate they can lose up to
  seconds per year. These seconds may not seem like
  much, but boy, do they add up.

Where did my second go?
1 2 4 8 A M
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Production of Quartz Clocks

• Quartz clocks and watches are made up of much
  fewer pieces than their mechanical counterparts.
• The main components of a quartz clock are the
  quartz crystal, a battery or an electric motor,
  and an IC microchip. Most mechanical clocks are
  made up of up to 160 parts.
• The production methods used for both the parts of
  the clocks as well as the assembly of the final
  product are highly automated.

• The extreme precision and accuracy needed to make
  a mechanical watch have contributed to the luxury
  status of mechanical watches.
• Mechanical watches make up only 13 of watches
  worn today.

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Quartz Technology Chronometers

• Quartz crystal oscillators were used to replace
  mechanical gears in late 19th- and early
  20th-century chronometers.
• This technology was then, in turn, surpassed by
  chronometers whose oscillations were derived from
  groups of charged atoms.
• These were the first atomic clocks.

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The Death of Quartz

• Atomic clocks are exceedingly more accurate
  than their quartz counterparts. Fortunately for
  the quartz clock industry, atomic clocks are far
  too expensive to mass produce, and, as of right
  now, the technology to miniaturize an atomic
  clock to watch size does not exist. Until those
  advancements are made, quartz clocks will reign
  supreme, however, at the rate of technological
  advancement, Id say the death of quartz is
  imminent.

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Bibliography

• http//www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855498.html
• http//elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/docume
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• http//elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/docume
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• http//elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/docume
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• http//invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quar
  tz/index.html