Editing Triboluminescence (section)

==History==
[[Image:UteQuartzRattle.jpg|right|thumb|250px|An [[Uncompahgre Ute]] Buffalo rawhide ceremonial rattle filled with quartz crystals. Flashes of light are visible when the quartz crystals are subjected to mechanical stress in darkness.]]

=== Quartz rattlers of the Uncompahgre Ute indigenous people ===
The [[Uncompahgre Ute]] indigenous people from Central Colorado are one of the first documented groups of people in the world credited with the application of [[mechanoluminescence]] involving the use of quartz crystals to generate light.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/handson/sugar_glow.shtml |title=BBC Big Bang on triboluminescence |access-date=2019-12-25 |archive-date=2019-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221213016/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/handson/sugar_glow.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Dawson | first1 = Timothy | year = 2010 | title = Changing colors: now you see them, now you don't | journal = Coloration Technology | volume =  126| issue = 4 | pages =  177–188| doi = 10.1111/j.1478-4408.2010.00247.x }}</ref>  The Ute constructed unique ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together produced flashes of light visible through the translucent buffalo hide.

===Early scientific reports===
The first recorded observation is attributed to English scholar [[Francis Bacon]] when he recorded in his 1620 ''[[Novum Organum]]'' that "It is well known that all [[sugar]], whether candied or plain, if it be hard, will sparkle when broken or scraped in the dark."<ref>Bacon, Francis. [http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/bacon.html ''Novum Organum''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060503183317/http://web.lemoyne.edu/%7Egiunta/bacon.html |date=2006-05-03 }}</ref> The scientist [[Robert Boyle]] also reported on some of his work on triboluminescence in 1663.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |date=1663 |title=A COPY OF THE LETTER That Mr. Boyle wrote to Sir Robert Morray, to accompany the Observations touch∣ing the Shining Diamond. |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A28975.0001.001/1:8?rgn=div1;view=fulltext |website=Experiments and considerations touching colours first occasionally written, among some other essays to a friend, and now suffer'd to come abroad as the beginning of an experimental history of colours |pages=391–411}}</ref> In 1675. Astronomer [[Jean Picard|Jean-Felix Picard]] observed that his [[barometer]] was glowing in the dark as he carried it. His barometer consisted of a glass tube that was partially filled with mercury. The empty space above the mercury would glow whenever the mercury slid down the glass tube.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=(Staff) |title=Experience faire à l'Observatoire sur la Barometre simple touchant un nouveau Phenomene qu'on y a découvert |journal=Journal des Sçavans (Paris edition) |date=1676 |pages=112–113 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56527v/f113.item.langEN |trans-title=Experiment done at the [Paris] observatory on a simple barometer concerning a new phenomenon that was discovered there |language=fr}}</ref>

In the late 1790s, [[sugar]] production began to produce more refined sugar crystals. These crystals were formed into a large solid cone for transport and sale. This solid sugar cone had to be broken into usable chunks using a [[sugar nips]] device. People began to notice that tiny bursts of light were visible as sugar was "nipped" in low light, an established example of triboluminescence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wick |first=Frances G. |date=1940 |title=Triboluminescence of Sugar |url=https://opg.optica.org/josa/abstract.cfm?uri=josa-30-7-302 |journal=JOSA |language=en |volume=30 |issue=7 |pages=302–306 |doi=10.1364/JOSA.30.000302|bibcode=1940JOSA...30..302W }}</ref>