[heleninboodler]

Fun fact, the quartz is used to make the big crucibles where the silicon wafers crystallize by starting from a seed in the center which is slowly drawn upward. My grandmother was a quartz salesperson for GE for decades (they sourced their quartz from this same company) and they make the crucibles. My grandma lived in a place with a small yard and her garden was planted in these very modern-looking quartz crucibles that were destined for chipmakers but had some tiny flaw on the inner surface so they couldn't be sold.

[harikb]

I was very confused initially because you talked about 'seed' as well as a garden. Do you mean something like this? [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method

[heleninboodler]

Yes, exactly.

[jonah]

That's neat!

My uncle gave me a bunch of large electrical insulators from the old high-tension transmission lines heading West from Hoover Dam. They make great yard ornaments.

[samatman]

Quartz singing bowls have historically been sourced from flawed crucibles. I don't know if that's still true exclusively or even primarily. Just always thought it was cool.